[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 22 (Friday, February 2, 2007)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 5108-5140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-1634]
[[Page 5107]]
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Part II
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
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10 CFR Parts 170 and 171
Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for FY 2007; Proposed Rule
Federal Register / Vol. 72, No. 22 / Friday, February 2, 2007 /
Proposed Rules
[[Page 5108]]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
10 CFR Parts 170 and 171
RIN 3150-AI00
Revision of Fee Schedules; Fee Recovery for FY 2007
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
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SUMMARY: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is proposing to amend
the licensing, inspection, and annual fees charged to its applicants
and licensees. The proposed amendments are necessary to implement the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OBRA-90), as amended, which
requires that the NRC recover approximately 90 percent of its budget
authority in fiscal year (FY) 2007, less the amounts appropriated from
the Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF), and for Waste Incidental to Reprocessing
(WIR) and generic homeland security activities. Based on the FY 2007
Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill (H.R. 5427), passed by
the U.S. House of Representatives, the NRC's required fee recovery
amount for the FY 2007 budget is approximately $663.7 million. After
accounting for carryover and billing adjustments, the total amount to
be recovered through fees is approximately $664.9 million. A final
appropriation has not been enacted. Thus, the total amount that must be
recovered through fees may be different once a final appropriation is
enacted.
DATES: The comment period expires March 5, 2007. Comments received
after this date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the
NRC is able to ensure only that comments received on or before this
date will be considered. Because OBRA-90 requires that the NRC collect
the FY 2007 fees by September 30, 2007, requests for extensions of the
comment period will not be granted.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of the following methods.
Please include number RIN 3150-AI00 in the subject line of your
comments. Comments on rulemakings submitted in writing or in electronic
form will be made available to the public in their entirety on the NRC
rulemaking Web site. Personal information will not be removed from your
comments.
Mail comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff.
E-mail comments to: [email protected]. If you do not receive a reply e-
mail confirming that we have received your comments, contact us
directly at (301) 415-1966. You may also submit comments via the NRC's
rulemaking Web site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov. Address questions
about our Web site to Ms. Carol Gallagher, 301-415-5905; e-mail
[email protected]. Comments can also be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking
Portal at http://www.regulations.gov.
Hand deliver comments to: 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland
20852, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. Federal workdays. (Telephone
301-415-1966).
Fax comments to: Secretary, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at
(301) 415-1101.
Publicly available documents related to this rulemaking may be
viewed electronically on the public computers located at the NRC's
Public Document Room (PDR), Room O1 F21, One White Flint North, 11555
Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland. The PDR reproduction contractor
will copy documents for a fee. Selected documents, including comments,
may be viewed and downloaded electronically via the NRC rulemaking Web
site at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov.
To obtain additional information on the NRC's FY 2007 budget
request, commenters and others may review NUREG-1100, Volume 22,
``Performance Budget: Fiscal Year 2007'' (February 2006), which
describes the NRC's budget for FY 2007, including the activities to be
performed in each program. This document is available on the NRC's
public Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm.html. Note, however,
that NUREG-1100, Volume 22, is based on the NRC's FY 2007 budget
request to Congress, and that the fees in this rulemaking are based on
the version of the NRC's FY 2007 budget approved by the U.S. House of
Representatives in H.R. 5427, as discussed in more detail later in this
document. The NRC budget in H.R. 5427 includes an additional
approximately $40 million, above the NRC's budget request, for
activities such as new reactor licensing and related support. The
allocation of the H.R. 5427 budget to planned activities within each
program, and to each fee class and surcharge category, is included in
the publicly available work papers supporting this rulemaking.
Publicly available documents created or received at the NRC after
November 1, 1999, are available electronically at the NRC's Electronic
Reading Room at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. From this
site, the public can gain entry into the NRC's Agencywide Documents
Access and Management System (ADAMS), which provides text and image
files of NRC's public documents. If you do not have access to ADAMS or
if there are problems in accessing the documents located in ADAMS,
contact the NRC PDR Reference staff at 1-800-397-4209; 301-415-4737 or
by e-mail at [email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Renu Suri, telephone 301-415-0161;
Office of the Chief Financial Officer, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
II. Proposed Action
III. Plain Language
IV. Voluntary Consensus Standards
V. Environmental Impact: Categorical Exclusion
VI. Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
VII. Regulatory Analysis
VIII. Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
IX. Backfit Analysis
I. Background
The NRC is required each year, under OBRA-90, as amended, to
recover approximately 90 percent of its budget authority (less amounts
appropriated from the NWF and for other activities specifically removed
from the fee base), through fees to NRC licensees and applicants. The
NRC receives appropriations each year for 10 percent of its budget
authority (less amounts appropriated from the NWF and for other
activities specifically removed from the fee base), to pay for the
costs of agency activities that do provide a direct benefit to NRC
licensees, such as international assistance and Agreement State
activities under section 274 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as
amended.
The NRC assesses two types of fees to meet the requirements of
OBRA-90, as amended. First, license and inspection fees, established in
10 CFR part 170 under the authority of the Independent Offices
Appropriation Act of 1952 (IOAA), 31 U.S.C. 9701, recover the NRC's
costs of providing special benefits to identifiable applicants and
licensees. Examples of the services provided by the NRC for which these
fees are assessed are the review of applications for new licenses and
the review of renewal applications, the review of amendment requests,
and inspections. Second, annual fees established in 10 CFR part 171
under the authority of OBRA-90, as amended, recover generic and other
regulatory costs not otherwise recovered through 10 CFR part 170 fees.
[[Page 5109]]
The NRC is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR)
for FY 2007 (Pub. L. 109-383) that is effective through February 15,
2007. This means that the FY 2007 funds currently available are similar
to the NRC's funding in FY 2006. Although the NRC has not received a
new appropriation for FY 2007, the NRC must proceed with this
rulemaking to collect the required fee amounts by September 30, 2007.
Therefore, the NRC is establishing fees in this rulemaking based on the
FY 2007 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill (H.R. 5427),
passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The NRC is basing its FY
2007 fees on this version of its FY 2007 appropriations because this
amount has been approved by the full House of Representatives. The
Senate version of this bill is similar: The total funding is the same,
but the allocation of the budget to certain activities is slightly
different.
If Congress enacts a different version of the NRC budget than that
included in H.R. 5427, the fees in the NRC's FY 2007 final fee rule
will be adjusted to reflect the enacted budget. Therefore, fees in the
FY 2007 final fee rule may differ from the fees in this proposed rule.
The NRC will adjust the FY 2007 final fees based on the enacted version
of the budget without seeking further public comment.
For example, if Congress enacts legislation that requires the NRC
to operate under a CR for the full FY 2007 and appropriates
significantly less to the NRC, the fees in the FY 2007 final fee rule
will be modified from the fees in this FY 2007 proposed fee rule, to
reflect the reductions in budgeted resources. The NRC's total required
fee recovery could be reduced by approximately $80 million under a
full-year CR, as compared to H.R. 5427, although the NRC's exact fee
recovery amount would depend on the specific provisions in such
legislation. A given licensee's part 171 annual fees under a full-year
CR would be either similar to, or less than, the fees included in this
proposed fee rule. (Fees in the FY 2007 final fee rule may also change
from this proposed fee rule for other reasons, such as changes in the
amount expected to be received from part 170 fees in FY 2007 compared
to FY 2006.) Under a full-year CR, annual fees for some license fee
classes may be affected more than other license fee classes, based on
which NRC activities are subject to budget reductions. It is possible
that some annual fees may increase from this proposed rule under a
full-year CR, because the NRC's ten percent fee relief, which is used
to reduce all annual fees in this proposed rule (discussed more in
Section II.B.2, ``Application of `Fee Relief'/Surcharge Changes''),
would be reduced. This may occur if a particular license fee class is
not subject to budget reductions under a CR, and also receives a
smaller annual fee reduction than that included in this proposed fee
rule from the NRC's fee relief. The change in appropriations under a
full-year CR would be unlikely to have a significant impact on the part
170 hourly rates included in this proposed rule.
Based on H.R. 5427, the NRC's required fee recovery amount for the
FY 2007 budget is approximately $663.7 million, which is increased by
approximately $1.2 million to account for billing adjustments (i.e.,
expected unpaid invoices), resulting in a total of approximately $664.9
million that must be recovered through fees in FY 2007.
In accordance with Section 637 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005
(Pub. L. 109-58), the budgeted resources associated with generic
homeland security activities are excluded from the NRC's fees each
year, beginning with this FY 2007 fee rule. This new legislative
provision was discussed in the NRC's FY 2006 proposed and final fee
rules (71 FR 7349, February 10, 2006; 71 FR 30721, May 30, 2006), and
results in the removal of approximately $35.3 million from the fee base
in FY 2007. These funds cover generic activities--those activities that
support an entire license fee class or classes of licensees--such as
rulemakings and guidance development. Under the NRC's authority under
the IOAA, the NRC will continue to bill under part 170 for all
licensee-specific homeland security-related services provided,
including security inspections (which include force-on-force exercises)
and security plan reviews.
The amount of the NRC's required fee collections is set by law, and
is therefore outside the scope of this rulemaking. In FY 2007, the
NRC's total fee recovery increased by $39.9 million from FY 2006,
mostly in response to increased workload for new reactor licensing
activities. The FY 2007 budget was allocated to the fee classes that
the budgeted activities support. As such, the proposed annual fees for
reactor licensees increased. The proposed annual fees for most other
licensees decreased due to factors such as the removal of generic
homeland security resources from the fee base, and other reductions in
budgeted resources allocated to the fee classes. Another factor
affecting the amount of annual fees for each fee class is the estimated
collection under part 170, discussed in the Proposed Action section of
this document.
II. Proposed Action
The NRC is proposing to amend its licensing, inspection, and annual
fees to recover approximately 90 percent of its FY 2007 budget
authority (less the appropriations received from the NWF, and for WIR
and generic homeland security activities). The NRC's total budget
authority for FY 2007 (under H.R. 5427) is $816.6 million. Of that
total, approximately $41 million is appropriated from the NWF, $2.9
million is budgeted for WIR activities, and $35.3 million is budgeted
for generic homeland security. Based on the 90 percent fee recovery
requirement, the NRC must recover approximately $663.7 million in FY
2007 through part 170 licensing and inspection fees and part 171 annual
fees. After accounting for carryover and billing adjustments, the total
amount to be recovered through fees is approximately $664.9 million.
The NRC's FY 2007 fee recovery is $39.9 million more than the amount
estimated for recovery in FY 2006, an increase of approximately six
percent.
The FY 2007 statutorily required fee recovery amount of $663.7
million is increased by $1.7 million to account for billing adjustments
(i.e., for FY 2007 invoices that the NRC estimates will not be paid
during the fiscal year, less payments received in FY 2007 for prior
year invoices). There is approximately $0.5 million FY 2006 carryover
to apply to FY 2007 fee collections. This leaves approximately $664.9
million to be recovered in FY 2007 through part 170 licensing and
inspection fees and part 171 annual fees.
The NRC estimates that approximately $193.4 million will be
recovered in FY 2007 from part 170 fees. This represents an increase of
approximately five percent as compared to the part 170 collections for
FY 2006 of $185 million. The NRC derived the FY 2007 estimate of part
170 fee collections based on the previous four quarters of billing data
for each license fee class, with adjustments to account for changes in
the NRC's FY 2007 budget, as appropriate. The remaining $471.5 million
will be recovered through the part 171 annual fees in FY 2007, compared
to the required part 171 collections of $441.7 million for FY 2006, an
increase of approximately seven percent.
Table I summarizes the budget and fee recovery amounts for FY 2007
(individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding).
[[Page 5110]]
Table I.--Budget and Fee Recovery Amounts for FY 2007
[Dollars in millions]
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Budget Authority.................................. $816.6
Less NWF, WIR, and generic homeland security........ -79.2
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Balance......................................... $737.4
Fee Recovery Rate for FY 2007....................... x 90.0%
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Total Amount to be Recovered for FY 2007................ $663.7
Less Carryover from FY 2006......................... -0.5
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Plus Part 171 Billing Adjustments
Unpaid FY 2007 Invoices (estimated)............. 5.4
Less Payments Received in FY 2007 for Prior Year -3.7
Invoices (estimated)...........................
---------------
Subtotal........................................ 1.7
===============
Amount to be Recovered Through Parts 170 and 171 Fees... $664.9
Less Estimated Part 170 Fees........................ -193.4
===============
Part 171 Fee Collections Required....................... $471.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The FY 2007 final fee rule will be a ``major rule'' as defined by
the Congressional Review Act of 1996. Therefore, the NRC's fee
schedules for FY 2007 will become effective 60 days after publication
of the final rule in the Federal Register. The NRC will send an invoice
for the amount of the annual fee to reactors and major fuel cycle
facilities upon publication of the FY 2007 final rule. For these
licensees, payment will be due on the effective date of the FY 2007
rule. Those materials licensees whose license anniversary date during
FY 2007 falls before the effective date of the final FY 2007 rule will
be billed for the annual fee during the anniversary month of the
license at the FY 2006 annual fee rate. Those materials licensees whose
license anniversary date falls on or after the effective date of the
final FY 2007 rule will be billed for the annual fee at the FY 2007
annual fee rate during the anniversary month of the license, and
payment will be due on the date of the invoice.
The NRC will send an invoice for the amount of the annual fee to
reactors, part 72 licensees, major fuel cycle facilities, and other
licensees with annual fees of $100,000 or more, upon publication of the
FY 2007 final rule. For these licensees, payment is due on the
effective date of the FY 2007 final rule. Because these licensees are
billed quarterly, the payment due is the amount of the total FY 2007
annual fee, less payments made in the first three quarters of the
fiscal year. Materials licensees with annual fees of less than $100,000
are billed annually. Those materials licensees whose license
anniversary date during FY 2007 falls before the effective date of the
FY 2007 final rule will be billed for the annual fee during the
anniversary month of the license at the FY 2006 annual fee rate. Those
materials licensees whose license anniversary date falls on or after
the effective date of the FY 2007 final rule will be billed for the
annual fee at the FY 2007 annual fee rate during the anniversary month
of the license, and payment will be due on the date of the invoice.
As a matter of courtesy, the NRC plans to continue mailing the
proposed fee rule to all licensees, although, as a cost saving measure,
in accordance with its FY 1998 announcement, the NRC has discontinued
mailing the final fee rule to all licensees. Accordingly, the NRC does
not plan to routinely mail the FY 2007 final fee rule or future final
fee rules to licensees.
The NRC will send the final rule to any licensee or other person
upon specific request. To request a copy, contact the License Fee Team,
Division of Financial Management, Office of the Chief Financial
Officer, at 301-415-7554, or e-mail [email protected]. The NRC plans to
publish the final fee rule no later than June 2007. In addition to
publication in the Federal Register, the final rule will be available
on the Internet at http://ruleforum.llnl.gov for at least 90 days after
the effective date of the final rule.
The NRC is proposing to amend 10 CFR parts 170 and 171 as discussed
in Sections II.A and II.B of this document.
A. Amendments to 10 CFR Part 170: Fees for Facilities, Materials,
Import and Export Licenses, and Other Regulatory Services Under the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as Amended
The NRC is proposing to establish one hourly rate to recover the
full cost of activities under part 170, and to use this rate to
calculate ``flat'' application fees. Additionally, this rule proposes
to revise the license application fees to (a) reflect the FY 2007
hourly rate and to comply with the requirement under the Chief
Financial Officers (CFO) Act of 1990 (Pub. L. 101-578, November 15,
1990, 104 Stat. 2838) that fees be reviewed biennially and revised as
necessary to reflect the cost to the agency, (b) establish new flat
fees for requests for exemptions from import/export licensing
requirements, and (c) change facilities flat fees to full cost fees. It
also proposes to establish new fee categories under Sec. 170.31 and
make minor administrative changes for purposes of clarification and
consistency.
The NRC is proposing the following changes:
1. Hourly Rate
The NRC is proposing to establish in Sec. 170.20 one professional
hourly rate for NRC staff time. This would be a change from the current
policy of using two hourly rates, one for the Nuclear Reactor Safety
(Reactor) Program, and one for the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety
(Materials) Program.
From FY 1988 through 1994, the NRC used one agencywide professional
hourly rate. In the FY 1995 fee rule (60 FR 32218; June 20, 1995), the
NRC replaced the single rate with two professional hourly rates based
on `cost center concepts' used for budgeting purposes, to more closely
align budgeted costs with specific fee classes. The average difference
in hourly costs between the Reactor and Materials Programs has been
small for a number of years. From FY 1998 through FY 2006, the average
difference in these rates was approximately two percent. The NRC does
not have reason to
[[Page 5111]]
believe that these two rates will be notably different from each other
in the future. Additionally, the NRC incurs administrative burden in
calculating and billing two different hourly rates. Therefore, the NRC
is proposing to return to the use of one hourly rate.
The NRC's hourly rate is used in assessing full cost fees for
specific services provided, as well as flat fees for certain
application reviews. The FY 2007 proposed hourly rate is $256. This
rate would be applicable to all activities for which fees are assessed
under Sec. Sec. 170.21 and 170.31. In the FY 2006 final fee rule, the
Reactor and Materials Program rates were $217 and $214, respectively.
The FY 2007 proposed hourly rate is higher than the FY 2006
Reactors and Materials Program rates mainly because of a downward
revision to the NRC's estimate of direct hours worked per full-time
equivalent employee (FTE) per year, which is used in the denominator of
the hourly rate calculation (described in further detail later in this
document). It is also higher due to Government-wide pay raises.
The NRC's single hourly rate would be derived by dividing the sum
of budgeted resources for (1) mission direct labor; (2) mission
indirect (or program overhead) labor and non-labor activities
(including mission direct travel); and (3) agency overhead labor and
non-labor activities, by mission direct hours. The only budgeted
resources excluded from the hourly rate are those for mission direct
nonlabor (i.e., contract) activities. This method is consistent with
the existing approach for calculating hourly rates for the Reactor and
Materials Programs. The only difference is that the formula used to
derive one average NRC hourly rate would be based on total NRC budgeted
resources (excluding HLW, WIR, and generic homeland security), rather
than using this same formula to calculate two rates based on resources
allocated to the Reactor and Materials Programs.
As noted previously, the FY 2007 proposed hourly rate is higher
than the FY 2006 Reactors and Materials rates mainly due to a revision
to the NRC's estimate of direct hours per FTE per year. The NRC last
revised its estimate of direct hours worked annually per direct FTE in
the FY 2005 final fee rule (70 FR 30525; May 26, 2005), when it began
using an estimate of 1,446 hours. As explained in the FY 2005 final fee
rule, this estimate is based on data from the NRC's time and labor
system. The NRC has again reviewed data from its time and labor system
to determine if this estimate requires updating for the FY 2007 fee
rule. Based on this review of the most recent data available, the NRC
determined that 1,287 is its best estimate of direct hours worked
annually per FTE. This estimate excludes all non-mission direct hours,
such as training, general administration, and leave. Because the NRC's
hourly rates are calculated by dividing annual budgeted costs by the
product of budgeted mission direct FTE and average annual direct hours
per FTE, the lower the number of direct hours per FTE used in the
calculation, the higher the hourly rates.
The NRC is proposing to update its hourly rate calculation to
reflect its latest estimate of direct hours per FTE to more accurately
reflect the NRC's costs of providing part 170 services, which would
allow the NRC to more fully recover the costs of these services through
part 170 fees. The NRC believes that this is consistent with guidance
provided in the Office of Management and Budget Circular A-25 on
recovering the full cost of services provided to identifiable
recipients. The resulting higher hourly rate would result in both
increased full cost fees for licensing and inspection activities, and
increased materials flat fees for license applications.
Because costs not recovered under part 170 are recovered through
part 171 annual fees, the increase in total part 170 fees (caused by
the hourly rate increase) would result in a reduction to total annual
fees of the same amount. As such, this hourly rate increase would shift
some fee recovery from part 171 annual fees to part 170 fees for
licensee-specific services. This change supports industry comments that
consistently recommend that the NRC collect more of its budget through
part 170 fees-for-services vs. part 171 annual fees. (Because the
invoices reflecting these increased part 170 fees will not be paid by
licensees until FY 2008--in light of the effective date of the FY 2007
final rule and the timing of the NRC's regular billing cycle--the
reduction in annual fees from this change would not occur until FY
2008.)
Because annual fees are adjusted to recover the remainder of the
budgeted resources for a license fee class not recovered under part
170, the total estimated fees (parts 170 plus 171) recovered from a
license fee class would be the same regardless of the amount of the
hourly rate. However, when implemented, higher hourly rates would
result in some individual licensees paying less total fees than if this
change were not enacted. This is true for those licensees for whom the
NRC performs fewer hours of part 170 services than it does, on average,
for a licensee in that class. Similarly, licensees for which the NRC
performs more hours of part 170 services will pay more in total fees
under the proposed higher hourly rate.
Table II shows the results of the hourly rate calculation
methodology. Due to rounding, adding the individual numbers in the
table may result in a total that is slightly different than the one
shown.
Table II.--FY 2007 Budget Authority To Be Included in Hourly Rates
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mission Direct Program Salaries & Benefits.............. $250.9M
Mission Indirect (Program Overhead) Salaries & Benefits, 105.6M
and Mission Direct Travel..............................
Agency Management and Support........................... 247.2M
---------------
Subtotal............................................ 603.7M
===============
Less Offsetting Receipts................................ -0.1M
---------------
Total Budget Included in Hourly Rate................ $603.6M
Mission Direct FTEs..................................... 1,835
Professional Hourly Rate (Total Budget Included in $256
Hourly Rate divided by Mission Direct FTE times 1,287
hours).................................................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As shown in Table II, dividing the $603.6 million budgeted amount
(rounded) included in the hourly rate by total mission direct hours
(1,835 FTE times 1,287 hours) results in an hourly rate of $256. The
hourly rate is rounded to the nearest whole dollar.
[[Page 5112]]
2. ``Flat'' Application Fee Changes
a. Revised Flat Fees. The NRC is proposing to adjust the current
flat application fees in Sec. Sec. 170.21 and 170.31 to reflect the
revised hourly rate of $256 and the results of the biennial review of
part 170 fees required by the CFO Act of 1990. These flat fees are
calculated by multiplying the average professional staff hours needed
to process the licensing actions by the professional hourly rate for FY
2007.
To comply with the requirements of the CFO Act, the NRC has
evaluated historical professional staff hours used to process a new
license application for those materials users fee categories subject to
flat application fees. This review also included new license and
amendment applications for import and export licenses.
Evaluation of the historical data shows that fees based on the
average number of professional staff hours required to complete
licensing actions in the materials program should be increased in some
fee categories and decreased in others to more accurately reflect
current costs incurred in completing these licensing actions. The data
for the average number of professional staff hours needed to complete
new licensing actions was last updated for the FY 2005 final fee rule.
Thus, the revised average professional staff hours in this proposed fee
rule reflect the changes in the NRC licensing review program that have
occurred since that time.
As a result of the biennial review, the proposed application fees
for materials users are based on the average professional staff hours
that reflect an increase in average time for new license applications
for four of the 34 Materials Program fee categories, a decrease in
average time for six fee categories, and the same average time for the
remaining 24 fee categories. [Note that for fee category 3.H., the NRC
used seven years of data (rather than five) to determine the average
application hours, to mitigate the significant fee `swings' resulting
from large changes to this estimate in the past two biennial reviews,
which the NRC believes are more a function of data anomalies than
substantive changes.] The average time for new license applications and
amendments for export and import licenses increased for seven fee
categories in Sec. Sec. 170.21 and 170.31, and remained the same for
the others. The proposed reciprocity fee reflects a slight decrease in
the average time supporting these licenses. The registration fee for
general licensees (fee category 3.Q. under Sec. 170.31) also
decreased.
The higher hourly rate of $256 is the main reason for the increases
in the application fees. Application fees for some fee categories
(K.3., K.4., and K.5. under Sec. 170.21; and 3.C., 3.N., 3.O., 15.C.,
15.D., 15.E., 15.R., and 17 under Sec. 170.31) also increase because
of the results of the biennial review of fees, which showed an increase
in average time to process these types of license applications. (As
discussed in the FY 2006 final fee rule, the average hours to process a
category 17 application are based on similar licenses of broad scope.)
The amounts of the materials licensing flat fees are rounded so
that the fees would be convenient to the user and the effects of
rounding would be ``de minimis.'' Fees under $1,000 are rounded to the
nearest $10, fees that are greater than $1,000 but less than $100,000
are rounded to the nearest $100, and fees that are greater than
$100,000 are rounded to the nearest $1,000.
The licensing flat fees are applicable for fee categories K.1.
through K.5. of Sec. 170.21, and fee categories 1.C., 1.D., 2.B.,
2.C., 3.A. through 3.S., 4.B. through 9.D., 10.B, 15.A. through 15.R.,
16, and 17 of Sec. 170.31. Applications filed on or after the
effective date of the FY 2007 final fee rule would be subject to the
revised fees in the final rule.
b. Flat Fees for Import/Export License Exemption Requests. The NRC
is proposing to charge part 170 flat fees for requests for exemptions
from import/export licensing requirements. The same fees would apply to
these requests for exemptions as apply to requests for import/export
licenses, because the NRC incurs similar costs in reviewing a license
application as it does in reviewing an exemption request. The NRC does
not receive many requests for exemptions from import/export licensing
requirements, but is proposing to assess part 170 fees for these
requests to comply with IOAA direction to recover the full costs of the
services it provides to identifiable recipients.
c. Change Facilities Flat Fees to Full Cost Fees. The NRC is
proposing to eliminate the flat application fees in Sec. 170.21 A
(application for a nuclear power reactor construction permit), C
(application for a test facility/research reactor/critical facility
construction permit), D (application for a manufacturing license), and
G (application for other production and utilization facility
construction permit), and instead charge full cost part 170 fees for
these activities. Footnote 1 to Sec. 170.21 would also be modified to
eliminate reference to provisions relating to these flat fees. The NRC
is proposing to make this change because it does not have recent data
on average professional hours associated with these types of
applications. Therefore, the NRC believes it is more appropriate to
charge full cost fees for these types of activities.
The NRC is also proposing to eliminate fee category F, ``Advanced
Reactors'', in Sec. 170.21. This is because applications of this type
are already covered under other fee categories (e.g., fee category A,
``Nuclear Power Reactors''). The definition of ``Advanced Reactor''
under Sec. 170.3 would also be eliminated.
3. New Fee Categories
The NRC is proposing to amend Sec. 170.31 to establish a new fee
category (2.A.(5)) for uranium water treatment facilities. The NRC
recently received a license application for this type of facility,
which was unique to the NRC and therefore not covered by existing fee
categories. Accordingly, the NRC charged this applicant full cost part
170 fees for reviewing its application under the ``special project''
fee category in Sec. 170.31. Because the NRC is proposing to add a fee
category under Sec. 171.16 to establish an annual fee for this type of
facility (see Section II.B.4.b of this document), the NRC is also
proposing to add the same new fee category under Sec. 170.31, to
maintain consistency of the fee categories under parts 170 and 171.
This new fee category under Sec. 170.31 would state that these
facilities are subject to full cost licensing and inspection fees.
The NRC is also proposing to update the fee amounts for some new
and revised proposed fee categories that were included in another NRC
rulemaking. The NRC published a proposed rule on July 28, 2006 (71 FR
42952) titled, ``Requirements for Expanded Definition of Byproduct
Material,'' which would amend its regulations to include jurisdiction
over certain radium sources, accelerator-produced radioactive
materials, and certain naturally occurring radioactive material, as
required by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This July 28, 2006, rule
proposed to establish three new fee categories and revise one existing
fee category. These new and revised fee categories would include
activities not currently covered by the NRC's existing regulations, but
which would be covered by the July 28, 2006, proposed rule. As
explained in that proposed rule (71 FR 42967), which was published
before the effective date of the FY 2006 final fee rule, the fee
amounts quoted reflected FY 2005 rates and budgeted resources. The NRC
revises its fees each
[[Page 5113]]
year in light of the current fiscal year budget and other factors.
Accordingly, this document provides the proposed fee amounts for these
new and revised fee categories based on the FY 2007 budget and proposed
hourly rates.
The new and revised fee categories included in the July 28, 2006,
proposed rule on the expanded definition of byproduct material are not
included in this FY 2007 proposed fee rule for public comment. This is
because these new and revised fee categories will be finalized as part
of the NRC's final rule on the expanded definition of byproduct
material. The NRC expects to publish a final rule on the requirements
for the expanded definition of byproduct material in mid-2007. The fee
calculation methodology and FY 2007 fee amounts for these new and
revised fee categories are proposed for public comment as part of this
FY 2007 proposed fee rule.
The NRC's proposed rule on the expanded definition of byproduct
material would establish a new fee category 3.R.(1), for individuals
possessing quantities greater than the number of items or limits in 10
CFR 31.12(a)(3), (4), or (5), but less than or equal to 10 times these
quantities. That rule proposed that the application and annual fees for
3.R.(1) be the same as those for fee category 8 under Sec. 170.31,
given the similarity in regulatory effort. The FY 2007 proposed
application and annual fees for the new fee category 3.R.(1) continue
to be based on the level of effort for fee category 8, and are $590 and
$2,100, respectively.
The proposed rule on the expanded definition of byproduct material
would also establish a new fee category 3.R.(2), for individuals
possessing quantities greater than 10 times the number of items or
limits in 10 CFR 31.12(a)(3), (4), or (5). That rule proposed that the
application and annual fees for 3.R.(2) be the same as those for fee
category 3.P. under Sec. 170.31, given the similarity in regulatory
effort. The FY 2007 proposed application and annual fees for the new
fee category 3.R.(2) continue to be based on the level of effort for
fee category 3.P., and are $1,400 and $2,700, respectively.
Additionally, the proposed rule on expanding the definition of
byproduct material would also establish a new fee category 3.S., for
the production of accelerator-produced radioactive materials. That rule
proposed that the application and annual fees for 3.S. be the same as
those for fee category 3.C. under Sec. 170.31, given the similarity in
regulatory effort. The FY 2007 proposed application and annual fees for
fee category 3.C. are $8,000 and $11,800, respectively. The proposed
application and annual fees for fee category 3.S. are $8,000 and
$10,800, respectively. The proposed fees for fee category 3.S. continue
to be based on the level of effort associated with fee category 3.C.
licensees. The proposed annual fee for 3.S. is slightly less than that
for 3.C. because the 3.S. fee does not include a portion of the low-
level waste (LLW) surcharge, while the 3.C. fee does. This is because
the licensees in fee category 3.C. directly benefit from the NRC's LLW
activities, but the licensees in fee category 3.S. do not. (The LLW
surcharge is included only in part 171 annual fees, and therefore does
not affect the part 170 application fees.)
Finally, the proposed rule on expanding the definition of byproduct
material would revise the scope of fee category 3.B. to include
licenses for repair, assembly, and disassembly of products containing
radium-226. The FY 2007 proposed application and annual fees for fee
category 3.B. are $4,500 and $8,300, respectively.
Fees associated with the new and revised fee categories for the
expanded definition of byproduct material will not be applicable until
the effective date of the FY 2007 final fee rule (approximately early
August 2007), or the effective date of the NRC's final rule on the
expanded definition of byproduct material, whichever is later. FY 2007
fees will be applicable to those new fee categories as of that date. As
mentioned previously, these fee amounts will be updated each year.
Note that the specific application and inspection hours used in the
part 170 and 171 fees for all categories of materials users licensees,
are included in the publicly available work papers supporting this
proposed rulemaking. The calculation method used to determine materials
users annual fees is explained in Section II.B.4.g of this document.
4. Administrative Amendments
The NRC is proposing to revise Sec. Sec. 170.3 and 170.12 to
clarify that unless otherwise specifically exempted, all specific
services provided by the Commission are ``special projects'' for which
full cost fees will be assessed under part 170. This is consistent with
NRC's existing practice and regulations, but the proposed revisions
more clearly state this.
The NRC is also proposing to make other minor administrative
changes. The NRC is proposing to eliminate the definitions for ``Indian
organization'' and ``Indian tribe'' in Sec. 170.3, because these terms
are no longer used in part 170. In Sec. 170.31, fee category
1.A.(2)(c) would be modified to state that it includes all `other'
licenses for fuel cycle activities under fee category 1.A(2), including
hot cell facilities. The NRC is also proposing to eliminate the
reference to footnote 4 in Sec. 170.31, fee categories 2.A.(2)(a),
2.a.(2)(b), and 2.A.(2)(c), as this footnote is not applicable to these
fee categories. Footnote 1(b) under Sec. 170.31 is also proposed to be
revised to eliminate the listing of all full cost fee categories to
eliminate redundancy. Additionally, footnote 1(c) under Sec. 170.31 is
proposed to be revised to eliminate reference to amendments for
licenses other than import and export licenses, as flat fees for other
license amendments no longer apply. Finally, fee category 7.B. in Sec.
170.31 is slightly modified so that the language describing this fee
category is the same under both parts 170 and 171.
In summary, the NRC is proposing to make the following changes to
10 CFR part 170 --
1. Establish one FY 2007 professional hourly rate of $256 to use in
assessing fees for specific services;
2. Revise the license application fees to (a) reflect the FY 2007
hourly rate and to comply with the CFO Act requirement that fees be
reviewed biennially and revised as necessary to reflect the cost to the
agency, (b) establish new flat fees for requests for exemptions from
import/export licensing requirements, and (c) change facilities flat
fees to full cost fees;
3. Establish new fee categories under Sec. 170.31; and
4. Make minor administrative changes for purposes of clarification
and consistency.
B. Amendments to 10 CFR Part 171: Annual Fees for Reactor Licenses and
Fuel Cycle Licenses and Materials Licenses, Including Holders of
Certificates of Compliance, Registrations, and Quality Assurance
Program Approvals and Government Agencies Licensed by the NRC
Beginning with this FY 2007 fee rule, the NRC is proposing to
remove generic homeland security budgeted resources from the fee base.
The NRC is also proposing to use its fee relief to reduce all
licensees' annual fees, and modify some surcharge categories. This
rulemaking also proposes to codify the NRC's policy regarding when the
assessment of annual fees begins, and establish rebaselined annual fees
based on the NRC's FY 2007 budget in H.R. 5427. Additionally, the NRC
is proposing to revise the way it prorates annual fees for materials
licenses of $100,000 or more, and establish some new fee categories.
Finally, the NRC is
[[Page 5114]]
proposing some minor administrative amendments under part 171. The
proposed amendments are described as follows:
1. Removal of Generic Homeland Security Budgeted Resources From the Fee
Base
As mentioned previously, the budgeted resources associated with
generic homeland security activities are excluded from the NRC's fees
each year, beginning with this FY 2007 rulemaking, in accordance with
the Energy Policy Act of 2005. As a result, $35.3 million is removed
from the NRC's required annual fee recovery in FY 2007. These funds
cover generic homeland security activities such as rulemakings and
guidance development. Under the NRC's authority under the IOAA, the NRC
will continue to bill under part 170 for all licensee-specific homeland
security-related services provided, including security inspections
(which include force-on-force exercises) and security plan reviews.
2. Application of ``Fee Relief''/Surcharge Changes
The NRC is proposing to use its fee relief to reduce all licensees'
annual fees, based on their percent of the budget. Additionally, the
NRC is proposing to make some revisions to the activities included in
the surcharge.
The NRC applies the 10 percent of its budget that it receives as
fee relief under OBRA-90, as amended, to offset the costs of activities
for which it does not charge fees or charges reduced fees. The costs of
these ``surcharge'' activities are totaled, and then reduced by the
amount of the NRC's fee relief. In prior years, any remaining surcharge
costs were then allocated to all licensees' annual fees, based on their
percent of the budget (i.e., over 80 percent was allocated to power
reactors each year).
In FY 2007, the NRC's 10 percent fee relief exceeds the total
surcharge costs by approximately $9.6 million. Therefore, the NRC is
proposing to use this fee relief to reduce all licensees' annual fees,
based on their percent of the budget. This is consistent with the
existing fee methodology, in that the benefits of the NRC's fee relief
are allocated to licensees in the same manner as costs were allocated,
when the NRC did not receive enough fee relief to pay for surcharge
activities.
The NRC is also proposing to modify some surcharge categories.
First, the NRC is proposing to add a new surcharge category in FY 2007
for the costs associated with a rulemaking on groundwater protection at
in-situ leach (ISL) uranium extraction facilities. This change is in
accordance with Commission Staff Requirements Memorandum COMJSM-06-
0001, ``Regulation of Groundwater Protection at In Situ Leach Uranium
Extraction Facilities'' (ML060830525). Second, the NRC is proposing to
eliminate the surcharge category for specific services to other Federal
agencies, because these agencies became subject to part 170 fees to
recover the costs of these services as of the effective date of the FY
2006 final fee rule. Third, the NRC is proposing to eliminate the
surcharge category for activities supporting unlicensed sites, because
the NRC now charges part 170 fees to owners or operators of unlicensed
sites in decommissioning (beginning July 25, 2006). All generic
decommissioning resources associated with these sites have been
allocated to the generic decommissioning/reclamation surcharge
category. The budgeted resources associated with unregistered general
licensees, previously included in the unlicensed sites surcharge
category, are added to the new surcharge category that includes the ISL
rulemaking.
Note the NRC is also modifying the way it calculates the resources
included in the generic decommissioning/reclamation surcharge category,
which includes decommissioning resources for all fee classes except
power reactors and the spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning fee
class. This is not a substantive or policy change, but rather a
calculation method change that will result in a more accurate estimate
of the actual costs of generic decommissioning/reclamation activities.
In previous years, the budgeted resources allocated to each fee class
included budgeted resources for site-specific decommissioning
activities, and then the part 170 estimated decommissioning revenue was
subtracted from each fee class. Beginning in FY 2007, all budgeted
resources for decommissioning/reclamation activities (for fee classes
other than power reactors and spent fuel storage/reactor
decommissioning) are initially allocated to the generic
decommissioning/reclamation surcharge category. This total is then
reduced by the total estimated part 170 decommissioning revenue from
all licensees (other than those in the power reactor and spent fuel
storage/reactor decommissioning fee classes). The NRC is explaining
this change because it results in a reduction in both the total
allocated budgeted resources and estimated part 170 revenue for the
affected fee classes, which are shown in Section II.B.4, ``Revised
Annual Fees,'' of this document.
The total budgeted resources for the NRC's surcharge activities in
FY 2007 are $64.1 million. The NRC's total fee relief in FY 2007 is
$73.7 million, leaving $9.6 million in fee relief to be used to reduce
all licensees' annual fees. These values are shown in Table III
(individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding).
Table III.--Surcharge Costs
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2007
Category of costs budgeted costs
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Activities not attributable to an existing NRC
licensee or class of licensee:
a. International activities......................... $12.7
b. Agreement State oversight........................ 9.1
2. Activities not assessed part 170 licensing and
inspection fees or part 171 annual fees based on
existing law or Commission policy:
a. Fee exemption for nonprofit educational 8.7
institutions.......................................
b. Costs not recovered from small entities under 10 5.1
CFR 171.16(c)......................................
3. Activities supporting NRC operating licensees and
others:
a. Regulatory support to Agreement States........... 11.1
b. Generic decommissioning/reclamation (not related 14.9
to the power reactor and spent fuel storage fee
classes)...........................................
c. ISL rulemaking and unregistered general licensees 2.5
---------------
Total surcharge costs........................... 64.1
===============
[[Page 5115]]
Less 10 percent of NRC's FY 2007 total budget (less NWF, -73.7
WIR, and generic homeland security activities).........
---------------
Fee Relief to be Allocated to All Annual Fees....... -9.6
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table IV shows how the NRC is proposing to allocate the $9.6
million in fee relief to each license fee class (individual amounts may
not sum to totals due to rounding). As explained previously, the NRC is
proposing to allocate this fee relief to each license fee class based
on the percent of the budget for that fee class compared to the NRC's
total budget. The fee relief would then be used to partially offset the
required annual fee recovery from each fee class. The proposed
revisions to Sec. Sec. 171.15(d)(1) and 171.16(e) would clarify that
the surcharge allocated to annual fees may be negative, i.e., an annual
fee reduction.
Separately, the NRC has continued to allocate the LLW surcharge
costs based on the volume of LLW disposal of certain classes of
licenses. Table IV also shows the allocation of the LLW surcharge.
Because LLW activities support NRC licensees, the costs of these
activities are not offset by the NRC's fee relief. For FY 2007, the LLW
surcharge costs are $3.4 million. Because the allocated LLW surcharge
exceeds the fee relief allocated to the materials users fee class, the
annual fee recovery for this fee class includes a net addition to its
annual fees for the surcharge costs.
Table IV.--Allocation of Fee Relief and LLW Surcharge
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LLW surcharge Fee relief surcharge Total
---------------------- (fee reduction) surcharge
----------------------------------
Percent $M Percent $M $M
Operating Power Reactors............................... 74 2.6 87.7 -8.4 -5.8
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decomm...................... ......... ......... 3.6 -0.3 -0.3
Test and Research Reactors............................. ......... ......... 0.1 0 0
Fuel Facilities........................................ 8 0.3 4.9 -0.5 -0.2
Materials Users........................................ 18 0.6 3.2 -0.3 0.3
Transportation......................................... ......... ......... 0.3 0 0
Rare Earth Facilities.................................. ......... ......... 0.0 0 0
Uranium Recovery....................................... ......... ......... 0.2 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------
Total Surcharge.................................... 100 3.4 100.0 -9.6 -6.1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Codification of Policy Regarding When the Assessment of Annual Fees
Begins
The Commission is proposing to modify Sec. Sec. 171.3 and 171.16,
to codify its longstanding practice regarding when the assessment of
annual fees begins for licensees subject to regulations that require a
specific NRC authorization to operate subsequent to the NRC issuing the
license. For these licensees, annual fees will not be assessed until
the NRC grants this authorization. At the present time, this
codification only affects new uranium enrichment licensees, as
described further in this document. (The NRC's regulations already
provide that part 52 combined operating license holders are not subject
to annual fees until the Commission authorizes fuel load and operation
of the reactor. This is also described further in this document.)
All other licensees will continue to be subject to annual fees at
the time the license is issued. This is consistent with the policy that
annual fees are assessed to licensees based on the benefits of
receiving the NRC's authorization to operate, whether or not the
licensee chooses to operate (with the exception of power reactors in
decommissioning or possession only status, which are assessed annual
fees if they have spent fuel onsite). Once a facility is authorized to
operate, it continues to pay its annual fee(s) even if it shuts down
for safety or other reasons and needs Commission approval to restart.
These amendments codify previous Commission decisions on this
issue. The Commission first adopted this fee policy when it did not
assess annual fees on those entities holding only a power reactor
construction permit. The Commission indicated its intention to continue
this policy when it included a provision in the Fiscal Year 2002 final
fee rule (67 FR 42611; June 24, 2002), which expanded the scope of part
171 to cover combined licenses authorizing operation of a power reactor
(part 52 licenses). The Statement of Considerations for this June 2002
final rule further explained that an annual fee for part 52 licensees
will only be assessed after construction has been completed, all
regulatory requirements have been met, and the Commission authorizes
operation of the reactor. Additionally, the NRC published a proposed
rule on March 13, 2006 (71 FR 12782), ``Licenses, Certifications, and
Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants,'' that included a provision that
states that a combined license holder does not have to pay an annual
fee until the Commission authorizes fuel load and operation.
Other than part 52 licenses, a uranium enrichment facility is the
only other current type of licensee subject to regulations that require
a specific NRC authorization to operate subsequent to the NRC issuing
the license. In the case of uranium enrichment facilities, this
authorization occurs after the Commission verifies through inspection
that the facility has been constructed in accordance with the
requirements of the license, as required by 10 CFR 40.41(g) and 10 CFR
70.32(k). Therefore, the Commission is proposing to codify its policy
that annual fees for uranium
[[Page 5116]]
enrichment facilities would be assessed at that time.
In the future, should the NRC amend its regulations to require
specific authorizations for other types of licenses before the licensee
may operate, the NRC will revise part 171 to explicitly state that
these other types of licenses are also not subject to annual fees until
the NRC grants the required authorization(s).
4. Revised Annual Fees
The NRC is proposing to revise its annual fees in Sec. Sec. 171.15
and 171.16 for FY 2007 to recover approximately 90 percent of the NRC's
FY 2007 budget authority (less the amounts appropriated from the NWF,
and for WIR and generic homeland security activities), less the
estimated amount to be recovered through part 170 fees. The total
amount to be recovered through annual fees for FY 2007 is $471.5
million. The required annual fee collection in FY 2006 was $441.7
million.
The NRC uses one of two methods to determine the amounts of the
annual fees, for each type of licensee, established in its fee rule
each year. One method is ``rebaselining,'' for which the NRC's budget
is analyzed in detail and budgeted resources are allocated to fee
classes and categories of licensees. The second method is the ``percent
change'' method, for which fees are revised based on the percent change
in the total budget, taking into account other adjustments, such as the
number of licensees and the projected revenue to be received from part
170 fees.
The NRC is proposing to establish revised annual fees for FY 2007
using the rebaseline method because of significant budget changes in
the areas of new reactor licensing and homeland security. As explained
in the FY 2006 final fee rule, the Commission has determined that the
agency should proceed with a presumption in favor of rebaselining in
calculating annual fees each year, and that the percent change method
should be used infrequently. This is because the Commission expects
that most years there will be budget and other changes that warrant the
use of the rebaseline method.
Rebaselining fees results in increased annual fees compared to FY
2006 for two classes of licenses (power reactors and non-power
reactors), and decreased annual fees for five classes of licenses
(spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning, fuel facilities, uranium
recovery, rare earth, and transportation). Within the materials users
fee class, annual fees for most of the categories (sub-classes) of
licenses decrease, while annual fees for some increase or remain the
same.
The most significant factors affecting the changes to the annual
fee amounts are the increase in budgeted resources for new reactor
activities, and the removal of generic homeland security resources from
the fee base in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The
NRC's total fee recoverable budget, as mandated by law, is
approximately $40 million larger in FY 2007 as compared to FY 2006.
Because much of this increase is for the additional workload demand in
the area of new reactor licensing, this increase mainly affects the
reactor annual fees. Other factors affecting all annual fees include
adjustments in the distribution of budgeted costs to the different
classes of licenses (based on the specific activities NRC will perform
in FY 2007) and the estimated part 170 collections for the various
classes of licenses. The percentage of the NRC's budget not subject to
fee recovery remained unchanged at ten percent from FY 2006 to FY 2007.
Table V shows the rebaselined annual fees for FY 2007 for a
representative list of categories of licenses. The FY 2006 fee is also
shown for comparative purposes.
Table V.--Rebaselined Annual Fees for FY 2007
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2006 FY 2007
Class/category of licenses Annual Fee Annual Fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Operating Power Reactors (including $3,704,000 $4,088,000
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor
Decommissioning annual fee)............
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor 173,000 150,000
Decommissioning........................
Test and Research Reactors (Non-power 80,100 92,300
Reactors)..............................
High Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility..... 5,420,000 4,451,000
Low Enriched Uranium Fuel Facility...... 1,596,000 1,345,000
UF6 Conversion Facility................. 1,046,000 881,000
Conventional Mills...................... 65,900 35,700
Typical Materials Users:
Radiographers....................... 15,400 14,100
Well Loggers........................ 4,800 4,300
Gauge Users (Category 3P)........... 2,900 2,700
Broad Scope Medical................. 33,000 28,800
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The budgeted costs allocated to each class of licenses and the
calculations of the rebaselined fees are described in paragraphs a.
through h. below. The work papers which support this rule show in
detail the allocation of NRC's budgeted resources for each class of
licenses and how the fees are calculated. The reports included in these
work papers summarize the FY 2007 budgeted FTE and contract dollars
allocated to each fee class and surcharge category at the planned
activity and program level, and compare these allocations to those used
to develop final FY 2006 fees. The work papers are available
electronically at the NRC's Electronic Reading Room on the Internet at
Web site address http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. During the
30-day public comment period, the work papers may also be examined at
the NRC Public Document Room located at One White Flint North, Room O-
1F22, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852-2738.
a. Fuel Facilities. The FY 2007 budgeted cost to be recovered in
the annual fees assessment to the fuel facility class of licenses
[which includes licensees in fee categories 1.A.(1)(a), 1.A.(1)(b),
1.A.(2)(a), 1.A.(2)(b), 1.A.(2)(c), 1.E., and 2.A.(1), under Sec.
171.16] is approximately $20.6 million. This value is derived based on
the full cost of budgeted resources associated with all activities that
support this fee class, which is reduced by estimated part 170
collections and adjusted to reflect the net allocated surcharge,
allocated generic transportation resources (see Section II.B.4.h of
this document for further discussion), and billing adjustments. The
summary calculations used to derive this value are presented in Table
[[Page 5117]]
VI for FY 2007, with FY 2006 values shown for comparison purposes
(individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding):
Table VI.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Fuel Facilities
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations fuel facility FY 2007
fee class FY 2006 final proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $39.6 $31.9
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ -15.8 -11.7
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 23.8 20.2
Plus allocated generic transportation... +0.4 +0.6
Plus allocated surcharge................ +0.5 -0.2
Billing adjustments (including +0.0 +0.1
carryover).............................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 24.8 20.6
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The decrease in fuel facilities FY 2007 total budgeted resources
compared to FY 2006 is due mostly to exclusion of homeland security
generic activities from the fee base, as well as lower budgeted
resources for certain activities.
The total required annual fee recovery amount is allocated to the
individual fuel facility licensees based on the effort/fee
determination matrix established in the FY 1999 final fee rule (64 FR
31447; June 10, 1999). In the matrix (which is included in the NRC work
papers that are publicly available), licensees are grouped into
categories according to their licensed activities (i.e., nuclear
material enrichment, processing operations, and material form) and
according to the level, scope, depth of coverage, and rigor of generic
regulatory programmatic effort applicable to each category from a
safety and safeguards perspective. This methodology can be applied to
determine fees for new licensees, current licensees, licensees in
unique license situations, and certificate holders.
This methodology is adaptable to changes in the number of licensees
or certificate holders, licensed or certified material and/or
activities, and total programmatic resources to be recovered through
annual fees. When a license or certificate is modified, it may result
in a change of category for a particular fuel facility licensee as a
result of the methodology used in the fuel facility effort/fee matrix.
Consequently, this change may also have an effect on the fees assessed
to other fuel facility licensees and certificate holders. For example,
if a fuel facility licensee amends its license/certificate in such a
way (e.g., decommissioning or license termination) that results in it
not being subject to part 171 costs applicable to the fee class, then
the budgeted costs for the safety and/or safeguards components will be
spread among the remaining fuel facility licensees/certificate holders.
The methodology is applied as follows. First, a fee category is
assigned based on the nuclear material and activity authorized by
license or certificate. Although a licensee/certificate holder may
elect not to fully use a license/certificate, the license/certificate
is still used as the source for determining authorized nuclear material
possession and use/activity. Second, the category and license/
certificate information are used to determine where the licensee/
certificate holder fits into the matrix. The matrix depicts the
categorization of licensees/certificate holders by authorized material
types and use/activities.
Once the structure of the matrix is established, the NRC's fuel
facility project managers and regulatory analysts determine the level
of effort associated with regulating each of these facilities. This is
done by assigning, for each fuel facility, separate effort factors for
the safety and safeguards activities associated with each type of
regulatory activity. The matrix includes ten types of regulatory
activities, including enrichment and scrap/waste related activities
(see the work papers for the complete list). Effort factors are
assigned as follows: zero (no regulatory effort), one (low regulatory
effort), five (moderate regulatory effort), and ten (high regulatory
effort). These effort factors are then totaled for each fee category,
so that each fee category has a total effort factor for safety
activities and a total effort factor for safeguards activities.
The budgeted resources for safety activities are then allocated to
each fee category based on its percent of the total regulatory effort
for safety activities. For example, if the total effort factor for
safety activities for all fuel facilities is 100, and the total effort
factor for safety activities for a given fee category is ten, that fee
category will be allocated ten percent of the total budgeted resources
for safety activities. Similarly, the budgeted resources for safeguards
activities are allocated to each fee category based on its percent of
the total regulatory effort for safeguards activities. The surcharge
allocated to the fuel facility fee class (which is a fee reduction in
FY 2007) is allocated to each fee category based on its percent of the
total regulatory effort for both safety and safeguards activities. The
annual fee per licensee is then calculated by dividing the total
allocated budgeted resources for the fee category by the number of
licensees in that fee category.
The effort factors for the various fuel facility fee categories are
summarized in Table VII. The value of the effort factors shown, as well
as the percent of the total effort factor for all fuel facilities,
reflects the total for each fee category (not per facility). Note that
the effort factors for the High Enriched Uranium Fuel fee category have
changed from FY 2006. The safeguards factor increased in FY 2007 to
reflect greater workload in the area of handling sensitive and
classified information. The safety factor is lower in FY 2007 to
reflect lower effort factors for pellet processing activities for this
fee category. Taking into account both of these changes, the total
safety and safeguards effort factor change is relatively small.
[[Page 5118]]
Table VII.--Effort Factors for Fuel Facilities
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Effort factors (percent of
Number of total)
Facility type (fee category) facilities -------------------------------
Safety Safeguards
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
High Enriched Uranium Fuel...................................... 2 91 (35.5) 101 (53.4)
Uranium Enrichment.............................................. 2 70 (27.3) 40 (21.2)
Low Enriched Uranium Fuel....................................... 3 66 (25.8) 21 (11.1)
UF6 Conversion.................................................. 1 12 (4.7) 7 (3.7)
Limited Operations.............................................. 1 8 (3.1) 3 (1.6)
Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration......................... 1 3 (1.2) 15 (7.9)
Hot Cell........................................................ 1 6 (2.3) 2 (1.1)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Applying the FY 2007 effort factors (as summarized in Table VII) to
the safety, safeguards, and surcharge components of the $20.6 million
total annual fee amount for the fuel facility class results in annual
fees for each licensee within the categories of this class summarized
in Table VIII.
Table VIII.--Annual Fees for Fuel Facilities
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2007
Facility type (fee category) annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
High Enriched Uranium Fuel................................. $4,451,000
Uranium Enrichment......................................... 2,550,000
Low Enriched Uranium....................................... 1,345,000
UF6 Conversion............................................. 881,000
Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Demonstration.................... 835,000
Limited Operations Facility................................ 510,000
Hot Cell (and others)...................................... 371,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that the NRC issued a construction and operation license to a
new uranium enrichment facility in June 2006. As explained in Section
II.B.3, ``Codification of Policy Regarding When the Assessment of
Annual Fees Begins'' of this document, this facility would not be
subject to annual fees until the Commission authorizes operation by
verifying through inspection that the facility has been constructed in
accordance with the requirements of the license, as required by 10 CFR
40.41(g) and 10 CFR 70.32(k). The annual fee applicable to any type of
new uranium enrichment facility is the annual fee in Sec. 171.16, fee
category 1.E., Uranium Enrichment, unless the NRC establishes a new fee
category for these facilities.
b. Uranium Recovery Facilities. The total FY 2007 budgeted cost to
be recovered through annual fees assessed to the uranium recovery class
[which includes licensees in fee categories 2.A.(2)(a), 2.A.(2)(b),
2.A.(3), 2.A.(4), 2.A.(5) and 18.B., under Sec. 171.16], is
approximately $0.86 million. The derivation of this value is shown in
Table IX, with FY 2006 values shown for comparison purposes.
(Individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)
Table IX.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Uranium Recovery
Facilities
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations uranium FY 2007
recovery fee class FY 2006 final proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $2.34 $1.30
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ -1.29 -0.43
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 1.05 0.87
Plus allocated generic transportation... + N/A + N/A
Plus allocated surcharge................ + 0.01 - 0.02
Billing adjustments (including + 0.00 + 0.00
carryover).............................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 1.06 0.86
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The decrease in the total required annual fee recovery is mainly
due to a reduction in uranium recovery licensing and inspection
resources allocated to this fee class for fee recovery. One main reason
for this reduction is the reallocation of uranium recovery licensing
and inspection resources to a rulemaking on groundwater protection at
ISL uranium extraction facilities. These resources are allocated to the
surcharge in FY 2007, consistent with the Commission direction on this
matter, as discussed in Section II.B.2, ``Application of `Fee Relief'/
Surcharge Changes,'' of this document.
Of the required annual fee collections, approximately $657,000
would be assessed to the Department of Energy for its Uranium Mill
Tailings Radiation Control Act (UMTRCA) Title I and Title II licensees
under fee category 18.B. The remaining $200,000 would be recovered
through annual fees assessed to the other licensees in this fee class,
i.e., conventional mills, in-situ leach solution mining facilities,
11e.(2) mill tailings disposal facilities (incidental to existing
tailings sites), and a uranium water treatment facility (discussed
further in this document).
The NRC is proposing to add to the uranium recovery fee class a new
fee category (2.A.(5) under Sec. 171.16) for uranium water treatment
facilities. This is because the NRC may license a facility of this type
during FY 2007, and therefore is proposing to establish the associated
annual fee in this fee rule. The NRC is proposing to establish a new
fee category for this type of facility because the NRC has not
previously licensed a facility of this type, and therefore the existing
fee categories do not clearly cover this type of facility.
[[Page 5119]]
Although included in the uranium recovery fee class, this type of
facility is a separate fee category within this fee class. The
methodology for calculating the proposed annual fee for this type of
facility is the same as that used for other facilities in this fee
class, but different input values are used in the fee matrix to
determine the actual fee amount for this facility (as described further
in this document), resulting in a different fee amount for this new fee
category.
In the FY 2002 final fee rule (67 FR 42611; June 24, 2002), the NRC
established a fee recovery methodology for the uranium recovery fee
class that would allocate the total annual fee amount for this fee
class, less the amounts specifically budgeted for Title I activities,
equally between DOE (for its UMTRCA Title I and Title II licensees) and
the other licensees in this fee class. The NRC is proposing to slightly
change this methodology, beginning with the FY 2007 proposed fee rule,
so that 45 percent of the total annual fee amount, less the amounts
specifically budgeted for Title I activities, is allocated to DOE's
UMTRCA annual fee. The remaining 55 percent of the total annual fee
amount (less the amounts specifically budgeted for Title I activities)
would be allocated to the other licensees in this fee class. The NRC is
proposing this change because, as mentioned previously, the uranium
recovery fee class would include a new type of facility in FY 2007 (fee
category 2.A.(5), uranium water treatment). Because the resources
associated with this new facility are less directly related to DOE
UMTRCA activities than are the resources for other licensees in this
fee class, the NRC believes it is appropriate to allocate a somewhat
smaller percentage of the generic resources supporting this fee class
to DOE.
This would result in an annual fee being assessed to DOE to recover
the costs specifically budgeted for NRC's Title I activities plus 45
percent of the remaining annual fee amount, including the surcharge and
generic/other costs, for the uranium recovery class. The remaining 55
percent of the surcharge and generic/other costs are assessed to the
other NRC licensees in this fee class that are subject to annual fees.
The costs to be recovered through annual fees assessed to the uranium
recovery class are shown in Table X.
Table X.--Costs Recovered Through Annual Fees; Uranium Recovery Fee
Class
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOE Annual Fee Amount [Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation
Control Act (UMTRCA) Title I and Title II general
licenses]:
UMTRCA Title I budgeted costs....................... $493,586
45 percent of generic/other uranium recovery 171,447
budgeted costs.....................................
45 percent of uranium recovery surcharge............ -7,993
---------------
Total Annual Fee Amount for DOE (rounded)....... 657,000
Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium Recovery Licenses:
55 percent of generic/other uranium recovery 209,546
budgeted costs.....................................
55 percent of uranium recovery surcharge............ -9,770
---------------
Total Annual Fee Amount for Other Uranium 199,776
Recovery Licenses..............................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The NRC is proposing to continue to use a matrix (which is included
in the supporting work papers) to determine the level of effort
associated with regulating the different (non-DOE) licensees in this
fee class. The weights derived in this matrix are used to allocate the
approximately $200,000 annual fee amount to these licensees. The use of
this uranium recovery annual fee matrix was established in the FY 1995
final fee rule (60 FR 32217; June 20, 1995). The FY 2007 proposed
matrix, which includes some modifications from the FY 2006 matrix, and
the methodology using this matrix, is described as follows.
First, the methodology identifies the categories of licenses
included in this fee class (besides DOE). In FY 2007, these categories
are conventional uranium mills (Class I facilities), uranium solution
mining facilities (Class II facilities), mill tailings disposal
facilities (11e.(2) disposal facilities), and uranium water treatment
facilities. The uranium water treatment facility is a proposed new fee
category in the uranium recovery fee class in FY 2007, as mentioned
previously.
Second, the matrix identifies the types of operating activities
that support these licensees. In FY 2007, the activities related to
generic decommissioning/reclamation are no longer included in the
matrix, because generic decommissioning/reclamation activities are
included in the surcharge, and therefore need not be a factor in
determining annual fees. The activities included in the FY 2007
proposed matrix are ``operations,'' ``waste operations,'' and
``groundwater remediation.'' The relative weight of each type of
activity is then determined, based on the regulatory resources
associated with each activity. The ``operations,'' ``waste
operations,'' and ``groundwater remediation'' activities have weights
of 10, 5, and 10, respectively, in the FY 2007 proposed matrix.
Once the structure of the matrix is established, the NRC's uranium
recovery project managers and regulatory analysts determine the level
of effort associated with regulating each of these facilities. This is
done by assigning, for each fee category, separate effort factors for
each type of regulatory activity in the matrix. Effort factors are
assigned as follows: Zero (no regulatory effort), two (minor regulatory
effort), five (some regulatory effort), and ten (significant regulatory
effort). These effort factors are first multiplied by the relative
weight assigned to each activity (described previously). Total effort
factors by fee category, and per licensee in each fee category, are
then calculated. These effort factors thus reflect the relative
regulatory effort associated with each licensee and fee category.
The effort factors per licensee and per fee category, for each of
the non-DOE fee categories included in the uranium recovery fee class,
are as follows:
[[Page 5120]]
Table XI.--Effort Factors for Uranium Recovery Licenses
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total effort factor
Fee category Number of Effort factor -------------------------------
licensees per licensee Value Percent total
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class I (conventional mills).................... 1 75 75 18
Class II (solution mining)...................... 3 75 225 54
11e.(2) disposal................................ 0 0 0 0
11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings 1 75 75 18
sites..........................................
Uranium water treatment......................... 1 45 45 11
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Applying these factors to the approximately $200,000 in budgeted
costs to be recovered from non-DOE uranium recovery licensees results
in the following proposed annual fees for FY 2007:
Table XII.--Annual Fees for Uranium Recovery Licensees
[Other than DOE]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 2007
Facility type annual fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class I (conventional mills)............................... $35,700
Class II (solution mining)................................. 35,700
11e.(2) disposal........................................... N/A
11e.(2) disposal incidental to existing tailings sites..... 35,700
Uranium water treatment.................................... 21,400
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note because there are no longer any 11e.(2) disposal facilities
under the NRC's regulatory jurisdiction, the NRC has not allocated any
budgeted resources for these facilities, and therefore has not
established an annual fee for this fee category. If NRC issues a
license for this fee category in the future, then the Commission will
establish the appropriate annual fee.
c. Operating Power Reactors. The approximately $409.6 million in
budgeted costs proposed to be recovered through FY 2007 annual fees
assessed to the power reactor class was calculated as shown in Table
XIII. (FY 2006 values shown for comparison purposes; individual amounts
may not sum to totals due to rounding.)
Table XIII.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Operating Power
Reactors
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations operating power FY 2007
reactors fee class FY 2006 final proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $515.9 $583.8
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ -155.2 -170.5
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 360.7 413.3
Plus allocated transportation........... +0.8 +1.1
Plus allocated surcharge................ +5.5 -5.8
Billing adjustments (including +0.2 +1.1
carryover).............................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 367.2 409.6
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The budgeted costs proposed to be recovered through annual fees to
power reactors are divided equally among the 104 power reactors
licensed to operate. This results in a FY 2007 proposed annual fee of
$3,938,000 per reactor. Additionally, each power reactor licensed to
operate would be assessed the FY 2007 proposed spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning annual fee of $150,000. This results in a total
FY 2007 proposed annual fee of $4,088,000 for each power reactor
licensed to operate.
The proposed annual fee for power reactors increases in FY 2007
compared to FY 2006 due to an increase in budgeted resources for a
number of activities, including regulatory infrastructure for new
reactor licensing activities and preparations for future combined
license applications. This increase is partially offset by the
exclusion of generic homeland security activities from the fee base and
higher estimated part 170 collections. The NRC estimates an increase in
part 170 collections of about 10 percent from operating power reactors
in FY 2007; these collections offset the required annual fee recovery
amount by a total of over $170.5 million.
The proposed annual fees for power reactors are presented in Sec.
171.15. As discussed previously in Section II.B.3, ``Codification of
Policy Regarding When the Assessment of Annual Fees Begins'' of this
document, the NRC recently published a proposed rulemaking (``Licenses,
Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants,'' 71 FR 12782;
March 13, 2006) that included a provision that states that a combined
license holder does not have to pay an annual fee until the Commission
authorizes fuel load and operation.
d. Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning. For FY 2007,
budgeted costs of approximately $23.7 million for spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning are proposed to be recovered through annual
fees assessed to part 50 power reactors, and to part 72 licensees who
do not hold a part 50 license. Those reactor licensees that have ceased
operations and have no fuel onsite are not subject to these annual
fees. Table XIV shows the calculation of this annual fee amount. (FY
2006 values shown for comparison purposes; individual values may not
sum to totals due to rounding.)
[[Page 5121]]
Table XIV.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for the Spent Fuel Storage/
Reactor Decommissioning Fee Class
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations spent fuel
storage/reactor decommissioning fee FY 2006 final FY 2007
class proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $26.6 $23.7
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ -5.8 -5.2
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 20.8 18.5
Plus allocated generic transportation... +0.2 +0.3
Plus allocated surcharge................ +0.2 -0.3
Billing adjustments (including +0.0 +0.0
carryover).............................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 21.2 18.4
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The required annual fee recovery amount is divided equally among
123 licensees, resulting in a FY 2007 proposed annual fee of $150,000
per licensee. The value of total budgeted resources for this fee class
decreased in FY 2007 compared to FY 2006 due to a decrease in the
budgeted resources for decommissioning activities and the exclusion of
generic homeland security activities from the fee base.
e. Test and Research Reactors (Non-power Reactors). Approximately
$369,000 in budgeted costs is proposed to be recovered through annual
fees assessed to the test and research reactor class of licenses for FY
2007. Table XV summarizes the proposed annual fee calculation for test
and research reactors for FY 2007. (FY 2006 values shown for comparison
purposes; individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)
Table XV.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Test and Research
Reactors
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations/test and FY 2007
research reactors fee class FY 2006 final proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $0.88 $0.85
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ - 0.57 - 0.48
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 0.31 0.37
Plus allocated generic transportation... + 0.01 + 0.01
Plus allocated surcharge................ + 0.01 - 0.01
Billing adjustments (including -0.00 + 0.00
carryover).............................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 0.32 0.37
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This required annual fee recovery amount is divided equally among
the four test and research reactors subject to annual fees, and results
in a FY 2007 proposed annual fee of $92,300 for each licensee. The
increase in annual fees from FY 2006 to FY 2007 is due to lower part
170 revenue estimates. The FY 2007 part 170 revenue estimate is based
on the last year of invoices for this fee class, adjusted for changes
in budgeted resources.
f. Rare Earth Facilities. The FY 2007 budgeted costs of $89,300 for
rare earth facilities (fee category 2.A.(2)(c) under Sec. 171.16)
proposed to be recovered through annual fees would be assessed to one
licensee who has a specific license for receipt and processing of
source material, resulting in a FY 2007 proposed annual fee of $89,300.
Table XVI summarizes the proposed annual fee calculation for the rare
earth fee class for FY 2007. (FY 2006 values shown for comparison
purposes; individual values may not sum to totals due to rounding.)
Table XVI.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Rare Earth Facilities
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations/rare earth fee FY 2007
class FY 2006 final proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $0.831 $0.101
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ - 0.740 - 0.010
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 0.091 0.091
Plus allocated generic transportation... + N/A + N/A
Plus allocated surcharge................ + 0.005 - 0.001
Billing adjustments (including + 0.000 + 0.000
carryover).............................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 0.096 0.089
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 5122]]
The total allocated resources for this fee class decreased in FY
2007 compared to FY 2006, primarily due to a decrease in budgeted
resources for licensing activities.
g. Materials Users. Table XVII shows the calculation of the FY 2007
proposed annual fee amount for materials users licensees. (FY 2006
values shown for comparison purposes; individual values may not sum to
totals due to rounding.) Note the following fee categories under Sec.
171.16 are included in this fee class: 1.C., 1.D., 2.B., 2.C., 3.A.
through 3.S., 4.A.-4.C., 5.A., 5.B., 6.A., 7.A. through 7.C., 8.A.,
9.A. through 9.D., 16, and 17.
Table XVII.--Annual Fee Summary Calculations for Materials Users
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations/materials users FY 2007
fee class FY 2006 final proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $30.3 $25.6
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ - 2.0 - 1.4
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources.............. 28.2 24.2
Plus allocated generic transportation... + 0.6 + 1.0
Plus allocated surcharge................ + 0.8 + 0.3
Billing adjustments (including + 0.0 + 0.0
carryover).............................
-------------------------------
Total required annual fee recovery.. 29.6 25.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The total required annual fees proposed to be recovered from
materials licensees decreased in FY 2007 mainly because of the
exclusion of generic homeland security activities from the fee base, as
well as decreases in the budgeted resources allocated to this fee class
for activities such as decommissioning and materials information
technology.
To equitably and fairly allocate the $25.5 million in FY 2007
budgeted costs to be recovered in annual fees assessed to the
approximately 4,400 billable diverse materials users licensees, the NRC
is proposing to continue to base the annual fees for each fee category
within this class on the part 170 application fees and estimated
inspection costs for each fee category. Because the application fees
and inspection costs are indicative of the complexity of the license,
this approach continues to provide a proxy for allocating the generic
and other regulatory costs to the diverse categories of licenses based
on how much it costs the NRC to regulate each category. This proposed
fee calculation also continues to consider the inspection frequency
(priority), which is indicative of the safety risk and resulting
regulatory costs associated with the categories of licenses.
The proposed annual fee for these categories of materials users
licenses would be developed as follows:
Annual fee = Constant x [Application Fee + (Average Inspection Cost
divided by Inspection Priority)] + Inspection Multiplier x (Average
Inspection Cost divided by Inspection Priority) + Unique Category
Costs.
The constant is the multiple necessary to recover approximately
$17.9 million in general costs (including allocated generic
transportation costs) and is 0.93 for FY 2007. The inspection
multiplier is the multiple necessary to recover approximately $7.1
million in inspection costs, and is 1.54 for FY 2007. The unique
category costs are any special costs that the NRC has budgeted for a
specific category of licenses. For FY 2007, approximately $155,000 in
budgeted costs for the implementation of revised 10 CFR part 35,
Medical Use of Byproduct Material (unique costs), has been allocated to
holders of NRC human use licenses.
The annual fee proposed to be assessed to each licensee also
includes a share of the $309,000 in fee relief allocated to the
materials users fee class (see Section II.B.2, ``Application of `Fee
Relief'/Surcharge Changes'' of this document), and for certain
categories of these licensees, a share of the approximately $620,000 in
LLW surcharge costs allocated to the fee class.
The annual fee for each fee category is shown in Sec. 171.16(d).
Annual fees for most fee categories within the materials users fee
class decrease, while some increase or remain the same. As indicated
previously, changes in the FY 2007 proposed annual fees for categories
of licensees within the materials users fee class reflect not only
changes in the budgeted resources supporting this fee class, but also
changes in the estimates of average professional staff time for
materials users license applications and inspections, derived from the
biennial review performed for the FY 2007 fee rule (see discussion of
the biennial review under Section II.A.2, ``Flat Application Fee
Changes'' of this document). Accordingly, the relatively large
percentage decrease in the proposed annual fee for fee category 3.H
under Sec. 171.16 is the result of a significant decrease to the
average professional staff time estimates.
h. Transportation. Table XVIII shows the calculation of the FY 2007
generic transportation budgeted resources proposed to be recovered
through annual fees. (FY 2006 values shown for comparison purposes.)
Table XVIII.--Annual fee summary calculations for transportation
[Dollars in millions]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summary fee calculations/transportation FY 2007
fee class FY 2006 final proposed
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total budgeted resources................ $6.3 $4.9
Less estimated part 170 receipts........ -1.2 -0.8
-------------------------------
Net part 171 resources (required 5.1 4.1
annual fee recovery)...............
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 5123]]
The total FY 2007 budgeted resources for generic transportation
activities, including those to support DOE Certificate of Compliance
(CoCs), is $4.1 million. [Generic transportation resources associated
with fee-exempt entities are not included in this total; these costs
are included in the appropriate surcharge category (e.g., the surcharge
category for nonprofit educational institutions).] The budgeted
resources for these activities decreased from FY 2006 to FY 2007 mostly
due to the removal of generic homeland security activities from the fee
base.
Consistent with the policy established in the NRC's FY 2006 final
fee rule, the NRC is proposing to recover generic transportation costs
unrelated to DOE as part of existing annual fees for license fee
classes. NRC is proposing to continue to assess a separate annual fee
under Sec. 171.16, fee category 18.A., for DOE transportation
activities.
These resources are proposed to be distributed to DOE (to be
included in its annual fee under fee category 18.A. of Sec. 171.16)
and each license fee class based on the CoCs used by DOE and each fee
class, as a proxy for the generic resources expended for each fee
class. As such, the amount of the generic resources allocated is
calculated by multiplying the percentage of total CoCs used by each fee
class (and DOE) by the total generic transportation resources to be
recovered.
The proposed distribution of these resources to the license fee
classes and DOE is shown in Table XIX (individual values may not sum to
totals due to rounding). The distribution is adjusted to account for
the licensees in each fee class that are fee exempt. [For example, if
three CoCs benefit the entire test and research reactor class, but only
four of 30 test and research reactors are subject to annual fees, the
number of CoCs used to determine the proportion of generic
transportation resources allocated to test and research reactor annual
fees equals ((4/30)*3), or 0.4 CoCs.]
Table XIX.--Distribution of Generic Transportation Resources, FY 2007
[Dollars in millions]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Allocated
Number CoCs Percentage of generic
License fee class/DOE benefitting fee total CoCs transportation
class (or DOE) resources
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL...................................................... 131 100 $4.08
DOE........................................................ 35 26.8 1.09
Operating Power Reactors................................... 36 27.5 1.12
Spent Fuel Storage/Reactor Decommissioning................. 9 6.9 0.28
Test and Research Reactors................................. 0.4 0.3 0.01
Fuel Facilities............................................ 19 14.5 0.59
Materials Users............................................ 31.4 24 0.98
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The NRC is proposing to continue to assess DOE an annual fee based
on the part 71 CoCs it holds, and not allocate these DOE-related
resources to other licensees' annual fees, because these resources
specifically support DOE. Note that DOE's proposed annual fee includes
a reduction for the fee relief (see Section II.B.2 of this document),
resulting in a total proposed annual fee of 1,066,000 for FY 2007. This
fee decreases from last year primarily due to exclusion of homeland
security activities from the fee base.
5. Prorating Annual Fees
The NRC is proposing to revise the annual fee proration provisions
for certain materials licenses. Section 171.17(b) currently states that
new licenses issued on or after April 1 of the FY will not be assessed
an annual fee for that FY, and that new licenses issued from October 1
to March 31 will be assessed one-half the annual fee for that FY. As
explained in Sec. 171.17(b), similar proration provisions also apply
to applications for license terminations and requests for downgraded
licenses.
The NRC is proposing to revise the annual fee proration provisions
for new licenses, license terminations, and downgraded licenses, for
all materials licensees subject to an annual fee of 100,000 or more for
a single fee category. For these licenses, annual fees for new,
terminated, or downgraded licenses would be based on the number of days
in the FY the license was in effect. This is consistent with the
proration provisions for reactors and part 72 licensees who do not hold
part 50 licenses, as established in Sec. 171.17(a). The NRC is
proposing this change because it believes it is more fair to prorate
all fees over 100,000 in the same manner, regardless of whether the fee
is associated with a power reactor, part 72 licensee, or materials
licensee.
6. New Fee Categories
As discussed in Sections II.A.3, ``New Fee Categories,'' and
III.B.4.b, ``Uranium Recovery Facilities'' of this document, the NRC is
proposing to amend Sec. 171.16 to establish a new fee category
(2.A.(5)) for uranium water treatment facilities. The NRC recently
received an application for this type of license, which was unique to
the NRC and therefore not covered by existing materials users fee
categories.
Also as discussed in Section II.A.3 of this document, the NRC is
proposing to update the fee amounts for some new and revised proposed
fee categories that were included in another NRC rulemaking,
``Requirements for Expanded Definition of Byproduct Material'' (71 FR
42952; July 28, 2006). Section II.A.3 includes both the FY 2007
proposed part 170 and part 171 fees for these new and revised fee
categories, as well as the explanation for the need for these new fee
categories.
Fees associated with the new and revised fee categories for the
expanded definition of byproduct material will not be applicable until
the effective date of the FY 2007 final fee rule (approximately early
August 2007), or the effective date of the NRC's final rule on the
expanded definition of byproduct material, whichever is later. FY 2007
fees will be applicable to those new fee categories as of that date. As
mentioned previously, these fee amounts will be updated each year.
Note the specific application and inspection hours used in the part
170 and 171 fees for all categories of materials users licensees are
included in the publicly available workpapers supporting this
rulemaking. The calculation method used to determine materials users
annual fees is explained in Section II.B.4.g of this document.
7. Administrative Amendments
The NRC is proposing to modify Sec. 171.15(b)(2)(iii) to clarify
that the types of activities included in the power
[[Page 5124]]
reactor annual fees include generic activities for new reactors. This
is not a policy change, but rather a clarification of existing policy.
Further, the NRC is proposing to revise Sec. 171.15(d)(1)(iii) to
eliminate reference to Federal agency activities being included in the
surcharge, because these activities are now recovered through part 170
fees to Federal agencies or included in other surcharge categories.
Additionally, the NRC is proposing to modify the last sentence of
footnote 1 under Sec. 171.16 to clarify that licensees paying fees
under categories 1.A. and 1.E. are not subject to fees under categories
1.C. and 1.D. for sealed sources authorized in the same license. This
is to enhance the consistency of this footnote to a similar footnote in
Sec. 170.31 (footnote 4). Finally, fee category 1.A.(2)(c) would be
modified to state that it includes all ``other'' licenses for fuel
cycle activities under 1.A.(2), including hot cell facilities,
consistent with this same proposed change for fee category 1.A.(2)(c)
under part 170.
In summary, the NRC is proposing to--
1. Remove generic homeland security resources from the fee base,
beginning in FY 2007, to comply with the Energy Policy Act of 2005;
2. Use the NRC's fee relief to all licensees' annual fees, based on
their percent of the NRC budget, and make changes to certain surcharge
categories;
3. Modify Sec. Sec. 171.3 and 171.16 to codify its policy
regarding when the assessment of annual fees begins;
4. Establish rebaselined annual fees for FY 2007;
5. Revise the annual fee proration provisions for new, terminated,
and downgraded materials licenses;
6. Establish some new fee categories to cover new NRC activities;
and
7. Make certain administrative changes for purposes of
clarification and consistency.
III. Plain Language
The Presidential Memorandum dated June 1, 1998, entitled, ``Plain
Language in Government Writing'' directed that the Government's writing
be in plain language. This memorandum was published on June 10, 1998
(63 FR 31883). The NRC requests comments on this proposed rule
specifically with respect to the clarity and effectiveness of the
language used. Comments should be sent to the address listed under the
heading ADDRESSES above.
IV. Voluntary Consensus Standards
The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995,
Public Law 104-113, requires that Federal agencies use technical
standards that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus
standards bodies unless using these standards is inconsistent with
applicable law or is otherwise impractical. In this rule, the NRC is
proposing to amend the licensing, inspection, and annual fees charged
to its licensees and applicants as necessary to recover approximately
90 percent of its budget authority in FY 2007 as required by the
Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, as amended. This action does
not constitute the establishment of a standard that contains generally
applicable requirements.
V. Environmental Impact: Categorical Exclusion
The NRC has determined that this proposed rule is the type of
action described in categorical exclusion 10 CFR 51.22(c)(1).
Therefore, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental
impact statement has been prepared for the proposed regulation. By its
very nature, this regulatory action does not affect the environment
and, therefore, no environmental justice issues are raised.
VI. Paperwork Reduction Act Statement
This proposed rule does not contain information collection
requirements and, therefore, is not subject to the requirements of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
VII. Regulatory Analysis
With respect to 10 CFR part 170, this proposed rule was developed
under Title V of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act of 1952
(IOAA) (31 U.S.C. 9701) and the Commission's fee guidelines. When
developing these guidelines the Commission took into account guidance
provided by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 4, 1974, in National Cable
Television Association, Inc. v. United States, 415 U.S. 36 (1974) and
Federal Power Commission v. New England Power Company, 415 U.S. 345
(1974). In these decisions, the Court held that the IOAA authorizes an
agency to charge fees for special benefits rendered to identifiable
persons measured by the ``value to the recipient'' of the agency
service. The meaning of the IOAA was further clarified on December 16,
1976, by four decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District
of Columbia: National Cable Television Association v. Federal
Communications Commission, 554 F.2d 1094 (D.C. Cir. 1976); National
Association of Broadcasters v. Federal Communications Commission, 554
F.2d 1118 (D.C. Cir. 1976); Electronic Industries Association v.
Federal Communications Commission, 554 F.2d 1109 (D.C. Cir. 1976); and
Capital Cities Communication, Inc. v. Federal Communications
Commission, 554 F.2d 1135 (D.C. Cir. 1976). The Commission's fee
guidelines were developed based on these legal decisions.
The Commission's fee guidelines were upheld on August 24, 1979, by
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Mississippi Power
and Light Co. v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 601 F.2d 223 (5th
Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 1102 (1980). This court held that--
(1) The NRC had the authority to recover the full cost of providing
services to identifiable beneficiaries;
(2) The NRC could properly assess a fee for the costs of providing
routine inspections necessary to ensure a licensee's compliance with
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and with applicable regulations;
(3) The NRC could charge for costs incurred in conducting
environmental reviews required by the National Environmental Policy
Act;
(4) The NRC properly included the costs of uncontested hearings and
of administrative and technical support services in the fee schedule;
(5) The NRC could assess a fee for renewing a license to operate a
low-level radioactive waste burial site; and
(6) The NRC's fees were not arbitrary or capricious.
With respect to 10 CFR part 171, OBRA-90, as amended, required that
the NRC recover approximately 100 percent of its budget authority, less
the amounts appropriated for the NWF, by assessing fees. To address
fairness and equity concerns related to charging NRC license holders
for costs that do not provide a direct benefit to the licensee, OBRA-90
was amended to reduce the NRC's required fee recovery each year
beginning in FY 2001 until the required fee recovery was 90 percent.
The 90 percent requirement became permanent under the Energy Policy Act
of 2005. As a result, the NRC is required to recover approximately 90
percent of its FY 2007 budget authority (less the amounts appropriated
from the NWF, and for WIR and generic homeland security activities)
through fees. To comply with this statutory requirement and in
accordance with Sec. 171.13, the NRC is publishing the amount of the
FY 2007 annual fees for reactor licensees, fuel cycle licensees,
materials licensees, and holders of Certificates of Compliance,
registrations of sealed source and devices, and Government agencies.
[[Page 5125]]
OBRA-90, consistent with the accompanying Conference Committee Report,
and the amendments to OBRA-90, provides that--
(1) The annual fees be based on approximately 90 percent of the
Commission's FY 2007 budget of $816.6 million less the funds directly
appropriated from the NWF to cover the NRC's high-level waste program,
and for WIR and generic homeland security activities, and less the
amount of funds collected from part 170 fees;
(2) The annual fees shall, to the maximum extent practicable, have
a reasonable relationship to the cost of regulatory services provided
by the Commission; and
(3) The annual fees be assessed to those licensees the Commission,
in its discretion, determines can fairly, equitably, and practicably
contribute to their payment.
10 CFR part 171, which established annual fees for operating power
reactors effective October 20, 1986 (51 FR 33224; September 18, 1986),
was challenged and upheld in its entirety in Florida Power and Light
Company v. United States, 846 F.2d 765 (D.C. Cir. 1988), cert. denied,
490 U.S. 1045 (1989). Further, the NRC's FY 1991 annual fee rule
methodology was upheld by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Allied
Signal v. NRC, 988 F.2d 146 (D.C. Cir. 1993).
VIII. Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
The NRC is required by the OBRA-90, as amended, to recover
approximately 90 percent of its FY 2007 budget authority through the
assessment of user fees. OBRA-90 further requires that the NRC
establish a schedule of charges that fairly and equitably allocates the
aggregate amount of these charges among licensees.
This proposed rule would establish the schedule of fees that are
necessary to implement the Congressional mandate for FY 2007. This rule
would result in increases in the annual fees charged to certain
licensees and holders of certificates, registrations, and approvals,
and decreases in annual fees for others. Licensees affected by the
annual fee increases and decreases include those that qualify as a
small entity under NRC's size standards in 10 CFR 2.810. A draft
Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, prepared in accordance with 5 U.S.C.
604, is included as Appendix A to this proposed rule.
The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996
requires all Federal agencies to prepare a written compliance guide for
each rule for which the agency is required by 5 U.S.C. 604 to prepare a
regulatory flexibility analysis. Therefore, in compliance with the law,
Attachment 1 to the Regulatory Flexibility Analysis is the small entity
compliance guide for FY 2007.
IX. Backfit Analysis
The NRC has determined that the backfit rule, 10 CFR 50.109, does
not apply to this proposed rule and that a backfit analysis is
therefore not required. The backfit analysis is not required because
the proposed amendments do not require the modification of, or
additions to systems, structures, components, or the design of a
facility, or the design approval or manufacturing license for a
facility, or the procedures or organization required to design,
construct, or operate a facility.
List of Subjects
10 CFR Part 170
Byproduct material, Import and export licenses, Intergovernmental
relations, Non-payment penalties, Nuclear materials, Nuclear power
plants and reactors, Source material, Special nuclear material.
10 CFR Part 171
Annual charges, Byproduct material, Holders of certificates,
registrations, approvals, Intergovernmental relations, Non-payment
penalties, Nuclear materials, Nuclear power plants and reactors, Source
material, Special nuclear material.
For the reasons set out in the preamble and under the authority of
the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended; the Energy Reorganization
Act of 1974, as amended; and 5 U.S.C. 553, the NRC is proposing to
adopt the following amendments to 10 CFR parts 170 and 171.
PART 170--FEES FOR FACILITIES, MATERIALS, IMPORT AND EXPORT
LICENSES, AND OTHER REGULATORY SERVICES UNDER THE ATOMIC ENERGY ACT
OF 1954, AS AMENDED
1. The authority citation for part 170 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: Sec. 9701, Pub. L. 97-258, 96 Stat. 1051 (31 U.S.C.
9701); sec. 301, Pub. L. 92-314, 86 Stat. 227 (42 U.S.C. 2201w);
sec. 201, Pub. L. 93-438, 88 Stat. 1242, as amended (42 U.S.C.
5841); sec. 205a, Pub. L. 101-576, 104 Stat. 2842, as amended (31
U.S.C. 901, 902); sec. 1704, 112 Stat. 2750 (44 U.S.C. 3504 note),
sec. 623, Pub. L. 109-58, 119 Stat. 783 (42 U.S.C. 2201(w)).
2. In Sec. 170.3, the definitions of Advanced reactor, Indian
organization, and Indian tribe are removed, and the definition of
Special projects is revised as follows:
Sec. 170.3 Definitions.
* * * * *
Special projects means any specific service provided by the
Commission for which fees are not otherwise specified in this chapter.
This includes, but is not limited to, contested hearings on licensing
actions directly related to U.S. Government national security
initiatives (as determined by the NRC), topical report reviews, early
site reviews, waste solidification activities, activities related to
the tracking and monitoring of shipment of classified matter, services
provided to certify licensee, vendor, or other private industry
personnel as instructors for 10 CFR part 55 reactor operators, reviews
of financial assurance submittals that do not require a license
amendment, reviews of responses to Confirmatory Action Letters, reviews
of uranium recovery licensees' land-use survey reports, and reviews of
10 CFR 50.71 final safety analysis reports. Special projects does not
include activities otherwise exempt from fees under this part. It also
does not include those contested hearings for which a fee exemption is
granted in Sec. 170.11(a)(2), including those related to individual
plant security modifications.
* * * * *
3. In Sec. 170.12, paragraphs (d)(1) and (d)(2) are revised as
follows:
Sec. 170.12 Payment of Fees.
* * * * *
(d) * * *
(1) All special projects performed by the Commission, unless
otherwise exempt from fees or for which fees are otherwise specified in
this part, will be assessed fees to recover the full cost of the
service provided. Special projects means any specific service provided
by the Commission, including but not limited to--
(i) Topical reports;
(ii) Financial assurance submittals that do not require a license
amendment;
(iii) Responses to Confirmatory Action Letters;
(iv) Uranium recovery licensees' land-use survey reports;
(v) 10 CFR 50.71 final safety analysis reports; and
(vi) Contested hearings on licensing actions directly involving
U.S. Government national security initiatives, as determined by the
NRC.
(2) The NRC intends to bill each applicant or licensee at quarterly
intervals until the special project is completed. Each bill will
identify the
[[Page 5126]]
special project, including any documents submitted for review or the
specific contested hearing, and the related costs. The fees are payable
upon notification by the Commission.
* * * * *
4. Section 170.20 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 170.20 Average cost per professional staff-hour.
Fees for permits, licenses, amendments, renewals, special projects,
10 CFR part 55 re-qualification and replacement examinations and tests,
other required reviews, approvals, and inspections under Sec. Sec.
170.21 and 170.31 will be calculated using the professional staff-hour
rate of $256 per hour.
5. In Sec. 170.21, in the table, fee category F is removed and
reserved, and fee categories A, C, D, G, and K, and footnote 1, are
revised to read as follows:
Sec. 170.21 Schedule of fees for production and utilization
facilities, review of standard referenced design approvals, special
projects, inspections and import and export licenses.
* * * * *
Schedule of Facility Fees
[See footnotes at end of table]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Facility categories and type of fees Fees \1\ \2\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. Nuclear Power Reactors:
Application for Construction Permit........ Full Cost.
Early Site Permit, Construction Permit, Full Cost.
Combined License, Operating License.
Amendment, Renewal, Dismantling- Full Cost.
Decommissioning and Termination, Other
Approvals.
Inspections \3\............................ Full Cost.
* * * * * * *
C. Test Facility/Research Reactor/Critical
Facility:
Application for Construction Permit........ Full Cost.
Construction Permit, Operating License..... Full Cost.
Amendment, Renewal, Dismantling- Full Cost.
Decommissioning and Termination, Other
Approvals.
Inspections \3\............................ Full Cost.
D. Manufacturing License:
Application for Construction Permit........ Full Cost.
Preliminary Design Approval, Final Design Full Cost.
Approval.
Amendment, Renewal, Other Approvals........ Full Cost.
Inspections \3\............................ Full Cost.
* * * * * * *
F. [Reserved]
G. Other Production and Utilization Facility:
Application for Construction Permit........ Full Cost.
Construction Permit, Operating License..... Full Cost.
Amendment, Renewal, Other Approvals........ Full Cost.
Inspections \3\............................ Full Cost.
* * * * * * *
K. Import and export licenses:
Licenses for the import and export only of
production and utilization facilities or
the export only of components for
production and utilization facilities
issued under 10 CFR Part 110.
1. Application for import or export of
production and utilization facilities
\4\ (including reactors and other
facilities) and exports of components
requiring Commission and Executive
Branch review, for example, actions
under 10 CFR 110.40(b).
Application--new license, or $16,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
2. Application for export of reactor
and other components requiring
Executive Branch review only, for
example, those actions under 10 CFR
110.41(a)(1)-(8).
Application--new license, or $9,700.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
3. Application for export of components
requiring the assistance of the
Executive Branch to obtain foreign
government assurances.
Application--new license, or $4,100.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
4. Application for export of facility
components and equipment (examples
provided in 10 CFR part 110, Appendix
A, Items (5) through (9)) not
requiring Commission or Executive
Branch review, or obtaining foreign
government assurances.
Application--new license, or $2,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
5. Minor amendment of any active export
or import license, for example, to
extend the expiration date, change
domestic information, or make other
revisions which do not involve any
substantive changes to license terms
or conditions or to the type of
facility or component authorized for
export and therefore, do not require
in-depth analysis or review or
consultation with the Executive
Branch, U.S. host state, or foreign
government authorities.
Minor amendment to license......... $770.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Fees will not be charged for orders related to civil penalties or
other civil sanctions issued by the Commission under Sec. 2.202 of
this chapter or for amendments resulting specifically from the
requirements of these orders. For orders unrelated to civil penalties
or other civil sanctions, fees will be charged for any resulting
licensee-specific activities not otherwise exempted from fees under
this chapter. Fees will be charged for approvals issued under a
specific exemption provision of the Commission's regulations under
Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (e.g., 10 CFR 50.12, 73.5)
and any other sections in effect now or in the future, regardless of
whether the approval is in the form of a license amendment, letter of
approval, safety evaluation report, or other form.
[[Page 5127]]
\2\ Full cost fees will be determined based on the professional staff
time and appropriate contractual support services expended. For
applications currently on file and for which fees are determined based
on the full cost expended for the review, the professional staff hours
expended for the review of the application up to the effective date of
the final rule will be determined at the professional rates in effect
at the time the service was provided. For those applications currently
on file for which review costs have reached an applicable fee ceiling
established by the June 20, 1984, and July 2, 1990, rules, but are
still pending completion of the review, the cost incurred after any
applicable ceiling was reached through January 29, 1989, will not be
billed to the applicant. Any professional staff-hours expended above
those ceilings on or after January 30, 1989, will be assessed at the
applicable rates established by Sec. 170.20, as appropriate, except
for topical reports whose costs exceed $50,000. Costs which exceed
$50,000 for any topical report, amendment, revision or supplement to a
topical report completed or under review from January 30, 1989,
through August 8, 1991, will not be billed to the applicant. Any
professional hours expended on or after August 9, 1991, will be
assessed at the applicable rate established in Sec. 170.20.
\3\ Inspections covered by this schedule are both routine and non-
routine safety and safeguards inspections performed by NRC for the
purpose of review or follow-up of a licensed program. Inspections are
performed through the full term of the license to ensure that the
authorized activities are being conducted in accordance with the
Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, other legislation, Commission
regulations or orders, and the terms and conditions of the license.
Non-routine inspections that result from third-party allegations will
not be subject to fees.
\4\ Imports only of major components for end-use at NRC-licensed
reactors are now authorized under NRC general import license.
6. In Sec. 170.31, the table and footnotes 1(b) and 1(c) are
revised to read as follows:
Sec. 170.31 Schedule of fees for materials licenses and other
regulatory services, including inspections, and import and export
licenses.
* * * * *
Schedule of Materials Fees
[See footnotes at end of table]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category of materials licenses and type of fees
\1\ Fee 2 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Special nuclear material:
A.(1) Licenses for possession and use of U-
235 or plutonium for fuel fabrication
activities:
(a) Strategic Special Nuclear Material Full Cost.
(High Enriched Uranium).
(b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible Full Cost.
Form Used for Fabrication of Power
Reactor Fuel.
(2) All other special nuclear materials
licenses not included in Category 1.A.(1)
which are licensed for fuel cycle
activities:
(a) Facilities with limited operations. Full Cost.
(b) Gas centrifuge enrichment Full Cost.
demonstration facilities.
(c) Others, including hot cell Full Cost.
facilities.
B. Licenses for receipt and storage of Full Cost.
spent fuel and reactor-related Greater
than Class C (GTCC) waste at an
independent spent fuel storage
installation (ISFSI).
C. Licenses for possession and use of
special nuclear material in sealed sources
contained in devices used in industrial
measuring systems, including x-ray
fluorescence analyzers: \4\
Application............................ $1,200.
D. All other special nuclear material
licenses, except licenses authorizing
special nuclear material in unsealed form
in combination that would constitute a
critical quantity, as defined in Sec.
150.11 of this chapter, for which the
licensee shall pay the same fees as those
under Category 1.A: \4\
Application............................ $2,400.
E. Licenses or certificates for Full Cost.
construction and operation of a uranium
enrichment facility.
2. Source material:
A.(1) Licenses for possession and use of Full Cost.
source material for refining uranium mill
concentrates to uranium hexafluoride.
(2) Licenses for possession and use of
source material in recovery operations
such as milling, in-situ leaching, heap-
leaching, ore buying stations, ion
exchange facilities and in processing of
ores containing source material for
extraction of metals other than uranium or
thorium, including licenses authorizing
the possession of byproduct waste material
(tailings) from source material recovery
operations, as well as licenses
authorizing the possession and maintenance
of a facility in a standby mode:
(a) Class I facilities................. Full Cost.
(b) Class II facilities................ Full Cost.
(c) Other facilities................... Full Cost.
(3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of Full Cost.
byproduct material, as defined in Section
11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from
other persons for possession and disposal,
except those licenses subject to the fees
in Category 2.A.(2) or Category 2.A.(4).
(4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of Full Cost.
byproduct material, as defined in Section
11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from
other persons for possession and disposal
incidental to the disposal of the uranium
waste tailings generated by the licensee's
milling operations, except those licenses
subject to the fees in Category 2.A.(2).
(5) Licenses that authorize the possession Full Cost.
of source material related to removal of
contaminants (source material) from
drinking water.
B. Licenses which authorize the possession,
use, and/or installation of source
material for shielding:
Application............................ $280.
C. All other source material licenses:
Application............................ $10,000.
3. Byproduct material:
A. Licenses of broad scope for the
possession and use of byproduct material
issued under parts 30 and 33 of this
chapter for processing or manufacturing of
items containing byproduct material for
commercial distribution:
Application............................ $12,000.
B. Other licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material issued under part 30 of
this chapter for processing or
manufacturing of items containing
byproduct material for commercial
distribution:
Application............................ $4,500.
[[Page 5128]]
C. Licenses issued under Sec. Sec. 32.72
and/or 32.74 of this chapter that
authorize the processing or manufacturing
and distribution or redistribution of
radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent
kits, and/or sources and devices
containing byproduct material. This
category does not apply to licenses issued
to nonprofit educational institutions
whose processing or manufacturing is
exempt under Sec. 170.11(a)(4). These
licenses are covered by fee Category 3.D:
Application............................ $8,000.
D. Licenses and approvals issued under Sec.
Sec. 32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter
authorizing distribution or redistribution
of radiopharmaceuticals, generators,
reagent kits, and/or sources or devices
not involving processing of byproduct
material. This category includes licenses
issued under Sec. Sec. 32.72 and/or
32.74 of this chapter to nonprofit
educational institutions whose processing
or manufacturing is exempt under Sec.
170.11(a)(4):
Application............................ $4,300.
E. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material in sealed sources for
irradiation of materials in which the
source is not removed from its shield
(self-shielded units):
Application............................ $2,900.
F. Licenses for possession and use of less
than 10,000 curies of byproduct material
in sealed sources for irradiation of
materials in which the source is exposed
for irradiation purposes. This category
also includes underwater irradiators for
irradiation of materials where the source
is not exposed for irradiation purposes.
Application............................ $6,000.
G. Licenses for possession and use of
10,000 curies or more of byproduct
material in sealed sources for irradiation
of materials in which the source is
exposed for irradiation purposes. This
category also includes underwater
irradiators for irradiation of materials
where the source is not exposed for
irradiation purposes:
Application............................ $14,300.
H. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part
32 of this chapter to distribute items
containing byproduct material that require
device review to persons exempt from the
licensing requirements of part 30 of this
chapter. The category does not include
specific licenses authorizing
redistribution of items that have been
authorized for distribution to persons
exempt from the licensing requirements of
part 30 of this chapter:
Application............................ $10,500.
I. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part
32 of this chapter to distribute items
containing byproduct material or
quantities of byproduct material that do
not require device evaluation to persons
exempt from the licensing requirements of
part 30 of this chapter. This category
does not include specific licenses
authorizing redistribution of items that
have been authorized for distribution to
persons exempt from the licensing
requirements of part 30 of this chapter:
Application............................ $10,400.
J. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part
32 of this chapter to distribute items
containing byproduct material that require
sealed source and/or device review to
persons generally licensed under part 31
of this chapter. This category does not
include specific licenses authorizing
redistribution of items that have been
authorized for distribution to persons
generally licensed under part 31 of this
chapter:
Application............................ $1,800.
K. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part
32 of this chapter to distribute items
containing byproduct material or
quantities of byproduct material that do
not require sealed source and/or device
review to persons generally licensed under
part 31 of this chapter. This category
does not include specific licenses
authorizing redistribution of items that
have been authorized for distribution to
persons generally licensed under part 31
of this chapter:
Application............................ $1,000.
L. Licenses of broad scope for possession
and use of byproduct material issued under
parts 30 and 33 of this chapter for
research and development that do not
authorize commercial distribution:
Application............................ $10,000.
M. Other licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material issued under part 30 of
this chapter for research and development
that do not authorize commercial
distribution:
Application............................ $3,600.
N. Licenses that authorize services for
other licensees, except:
(1) Licenses that authorize only
calibration and/or leak testing
services are subject to the fees
specified in fee Category 3P; and
(2) Licenses that authorize waste
disposal services are subject to the
fees specified in fee Categories 4.A.,
4.B., and 4.C:
Application............................ $6,500.
O. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material issued under part 34 of
this chapter for industrial radiography
operations:
Application............................ $4,900.
P. All other specific byproduct material
licenses, except those in Categories 4.A.
through 9.D:
Application............................ $1,400.
Q. Registration of a device(s) generally
licensed under part 31 of this chapter:
Registration........................... $320.
4. Waste disposal and processing:
A. Licenses specifically authorizing the Full Cost.
receipt of waste byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear
material from other persons for the
purpose of contingency storage or
commercial land disposal by the licensee;
or licenses authorizing contingency
storage of low-level radioactive waste at
the site of nuclear power reactors; or
licenses for receipt of waste from other
persons for incineration or other
treatment, packaging of resulting waste
and residues, and transfer of packages to
another person authorized to receive or
dispose of waste material.
B. Licenses specifically authorizing the
receipt of waste byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear
material from other persons for the
purpose of packaging or repackaging the
material. The licensee will dispose of the
material by transfer to another person
authorized to receive or dispose of the
material:
Application............................ $3,100.
[[Page 5129]]
C. Licenses specifically authorizing the
receipt of prepackaged waste byproduct
material, source material, or special
nuclear material from other persons. The
licensee will dispose of the material by
transfer to another person authorized to
receive or dispose of the material:
Application............................ $4,600.
5. Well logging:
A. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material, source material, and/
or special nuclear material for well
logging, well surveys, and tracer studies
other than field flooding tracer studies:
Application............................ $1,700.
B. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material for field flooding
tracer studies:
Licensing.............................. Full Cost.
6. Nuclear laundries:
A. Licenses for commercial collection and
laundry of items contaminated with
byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material:
Application............................ $20,400.
7. Medical licenses:
A. Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40,
and 70 of this chapter for human use of
byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material in sealed sources
contained in teletherapy devices:
Application............................ $11,200.
B. Licenses of broad scope issued to
medical institutions or two or more
physicians under parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and
70 of this chapter authorizing research
and development, including human use of
byproduct material, except licenses for
byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material in sealed sources
contained in teletherapy devices. This
category also includes the possession and
use of source material for shielding when
authorized on the same license:
Application............................ $8,000.
C. Other licenses issued under parts 30,
35, 40, and 70 of this chapter for human
use of byproduct material, source
material, and/or special nuclear material,
except licenses for byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear
material in sealed sources contained in
teletherapy device:
Application............................ $2,400.
8. Civil defense:
A. Licenses for possession and use of
byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material for civil defense
activities:
Application............................ $590.
9. Device, product, or sealed source safety
evaluation:
A. Safety evaluation of devices or products
containing byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material,
except reactor fuel devices, for
commercial distribution:
Application--each device............... $20,900.
B. Safety evaluation of devices or products
containing byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material
manufactured in accordance with the unique
specifications of, and for use by, a
single applicant, except reactor fuel
devices:
Application--each device............... $20,900.
C. Safety evaluation of sealed sources
containing byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material,
except reactor fuel, for commercial
distribution:
Application--each source............... $2,900.
D. Safety evaluation of sealed sources
containing byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material,
manufactured in accordance with the unique
specifications of, and for use by, a
single applicant, except reactor fuel:..
Application--each source............... $970.
10. Transportation of radioactive material:
A. Evaluation of casks, packages, and
shipping containers:
1. Spent Fuel, High-Level Waste, and Full Cost.
plutonium air packages.
2. Other Casks......................... Full Cost.
B. Quality assurance program approvals
issued under part 71 of this chapter:
1. Users and Fabricators:
Application........................ $4,800.
Inspections........................ Full Cost.
2. Users:
Application........................ $4,800.
Inspections........................ Full Cost.
C. Evaluation of security plans, route Full Cost.
approvals, route surveys, and
transportation security devices (including
immobilization devices).
11. Review of standardized spent fuel Full Cost.
facilities.
12. Special projects:
Including approvals, preapplication/ Full Cost.
licensing activities, and inspections.
13.A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of Full Cost.
Compliance.
B. Inspections related to storage of spent fuel Full Cost.
under Sec. 72.210 of this chapter.
14.A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear Full Cost.
material licenses and other approvals
authorizing decommissioning, decontamination,
reclamation, or site restoration activities
under parts 30, 40, 70, 72, and 76 of this
chapter.
B. Site-specific decommissioning activities Full Cost.
associated with unlicensed sites, regardless
of whether or not the sites have been
previously licensed. Part 170 fees for these
activities will not be charged until July 25,
2006.
15. Import and Export licenses:
Licenses issued under part 110 of this
chapter for the import and export only of
special nuclear material, source material,
tritium and other byproduct material, and
the export only of heavy water, or nuclear
grade graphite (fee categories 15.A.
through 15.E):
[[Page 5130]]
A. Application for export or import of
nuclear materials, including
radioactive waste requiring Commission
and Executive Branch review, for
example, those actions under 10 CFR
110.40(b):
Application--new license, or $16,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
B. Application for export or import of
nuclear material, including
radioactive waste, requiring Executive
Branch review, but not Commission
review. This category includes
applications for the export and import
of radioactive waste and requires NRC
to consult with domestic host state
authorities, Low-Level Radioactive
Waste Compact Commission, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, etc:
Application--new license, or $9,700.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
C. Application for export of nuclear
material, for example, routine reloads
of low enriched uranium reactor fuel
and/or natural uranium source material
requiring the assistance of the
Executive Branch to obtain foreign
government assurances:
Application--new license, or $4,100.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
D. Application for export or import of
nuclear material, including
radioactive waste, not requiring
Commission or Executive Branch review,
or obtaining foreign government
assurances. This category includes
applications for export or import of
radioactive waste where the NRC has
previously authorized the export or
import of the same form of waste to or
from the same or similar parties
located in the same country, requiring
only confirmation from the receiving
facility and licensing authorities
that the shipments may proceed
according to previously agreed
understandings and procedures:
Application--new license, or $2,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
E. Minor amendment of any active export
or import license, for example, to
extend the expiration date, change
domestic information, or make other
revisions which do not involve any
substantive changes to license terms
and conditions or to the type/quantity/
chemical composition of the material
authorized for export and therefore,
do not require in-depth analysis,
review, or consultations with other
Executive Branch, U.S. host state, or
foreign government authorities.
Minor amendment.................... $770.
Licenses issued under part 110 of this
chapter for the import and export only of
Category 1 and Category 2 quantities of
radioactive material listed in Appendix P
to part 110 of this chapter (fee
categories 15.F. through 15.R.).\6\.
Category 1 Exports
F. Application for export of Category 1
materials involving an exceptional
circumstances review under 10 CFR
110.42(e)(4):
Application--new license, or $16,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
G. Application for export of Category 1
materials requiring Executive Branch
review, Commission review, and/or
government-to-government consent:
Application--new license, or $9,700.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
H. Application for export of Category 1
materials requiring Commission review
and government-to-government consent:
Application--new license, or $6,100.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
I. Application for export of Category 1
material requiring government-to-
government consent:
Application--new license, or $5,100.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
Category 2 Exports
J. Application for export of Category 2
materials involving an exceptional
circumstances review under 10 CFR
110.42(e)(4):
Application--new license, or $16,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
K. Applications for export of Category
2 materials requiring Executive Branch
review and/or Commission review:
Application--new license, or $9,700.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
L. Application for the export of
Category 2 materials:
Application--new license, or $4,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
Category 1 Imports
M. Application for the import of
Category 1 material requiring
Commission review:
Application--new license, or $4,900.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
N. Application for the import of
Category 1 material:
Application--new license, or $4,100.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
Category 2 Imports
O. Application for the import of
Category 2 material:
Application--new license, or $3,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
Category 1 Imports with Agent and
Multiple Licensees.
P. Application for the import of
Category 1 material with agent and
multiple licensees requiring
Commission review:
Application--new license, or $5,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
Q. Application for the import of
Category 1 material with agent and
multiple licensees:
Application--new license, or $4,600.
amendment; or license exemption
request.
Minor Amendments (Category 1 and 2
Export and Imports)
R. Minor amendment of any active export
or import license, for example, to
extend the expiration date, change
domestic information, or make other
revisions which do not involve any
substantive changes to license terms
and conditions or to the type/quantity/
chemical composition of the material
authorized for export and therefore,
do not require in-depth analysis,
review, or consultations with other
Executive Branch, U.S. host state, or
foreign authorities.
Minor amendment.................... $770.
16. Reciprocity:
Agreement State licensees who conduct
activities under the reciprocity
provisions of 10 CFR 150.20:
Application............................ $1,500.
17. Master materials licenses of broad scope
issued to Government agencies:
Application............................ $23,600.
8. Department of Energy:
[[Page 5131]]
A. Certificates of Compliance. Evaluation Full Cost.
of casks, packages, and shipping
containers (including spent fuel, high-
level waste, and other casks, and
plutonium air packages).
B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Full Cost.
Act (UMTRCA) activities.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Types of fees--Separate charges, as shown in the schedule, will be
assessed for pre-application consultations and reviews; applications
for new licenses, approvals, or license terminations; possession only
licenses; issuance of new licenses and approvals; certain amendments
and renewals to existing licenses and approvals; safety evaluations of
sealed sources and devices; generally licensed device registrations;
and certain inspections. The following guidelines apply to these
charges:
(a) Application and registration fees. Applications for new materials
licenses and export and import licenses; applications to reinstate
expired, terminated, or inactive licenses except those subject to fees
assessed at full costs; applications filed by Agreement State
licensees to register under the general license provisions of 10 CFR
150.20; and applications for amendments to materials licenses that
would place the license in a higher fee category or add a new fee
category must be accompanied by the prescribed application fee for
each category.
(1) Applications for licenses covering more than one fee category of
special nuclear material or source material must be accompanied by the
prescribed application fee for the highest fee category.
(2) Applications for new licenses that cover both byproduct material
and special nuclear material in sealed sources for use in gauging
devices will pay the appropriate application fee for fee Category 1.C.
only.
(b) Licensing fees. Fees for reviews of applications for new licenses
and for renewals and amendments to existing licenses, pre-application
consultations and reviews of other documents submitted to NRC for
review, and project manager time for fee categories subject to full
cost fees, are due upon notification by the Commission in accordance
with Sec. 170.12(b).
(c) Amendment fees. Applications for amendments to export and import
licenses must be accompanied by the prescribed amendment fee for each
license affected. An application for an amendment to an export or
import license or approval classified in more than one fee category
must be accompanied by the prescribed amendment fee for the category
affected by the amendment unless the amendment is applicable to two or
more fee categories, in which case the amendment fee for the highest
fee category would apply.
(d) Inspection fees. Inspections resulting from investigations
conducted by the Office of Investigations and non-routine inspections
that result from third-party allegations are not subject to fees.
Inspection fees are due upon notification by the Commission in
accordance with Sec. 170.12(c).
(e) Generally licensed device registrations under 10 CFR 31.5.
Submittals of registration information must be accompanied by the
prescribed fee.
\2\ Fees will not be charged for orders related to civil penalties or
other civil sanctions issued by the Commission under 10 CFR 2.202 or
for amendments resulting specifically from the requirements of these
orders. For orders unrelated to civil penalties or other civil
sanctions, fees will be charged for any resulting licensee-specific
activities not otherwise exempted from fees under this chapter. Fees
will be charged for approvals issued under a specific exemption
provision of the Commission's regulations under Title 10 of the Code
of Federal Regulations (e.g., 10 CFR 30.11, 40.14, 70.14, 73.5, and
any other sections in effect now or in the future), regardless of
whether the approval is in the form of a license amendment, letter of
approval, safety evaluation report, or other form. In addition to the
fee shown, an applicant may be assessed an additional fee for sealed
source and device evaluations as shown in Categories 9.A. through 9.D.
\3\ Full cost fees will be determined based on the professional staff
time multiplied by the appropriate professional hourly rate
established in Sec. 170.20 in effect at the time the service is
provided, and the appropriate contractual support services expended.
For applications currently on file for which review costs have reached
an applicable fee ceiling established by the June 20, 1984, and July
2, 1990, rules, but are still pending completion of the review, the
cost incurred after any applicable ceiling was reached through January
29, 1989, will not be billed to the applicant. Any professional staff-
hours expended above those ceilings on or after January 30, 1989, will
be assessed at the applicable rates established by Sec. 170.20, as
appropriate, except for topical reports whose costs exceed $50,000.
Costs which exceed $50,000 for each topical report, amendment,
revision, or supplement to a topical report completed or under review
from January 30, 1989, through August 8, 1991, will not be billed to
the applicant. Any professional hours expended on or after August 9,
1991, will be assessed at the applicable rate established in Sec.
170.20.
\4\ Licensees paying fees under Categories 1.A., 1.B., and 1.E. are not
subject to fees under Categories 1.C. and 1.D. for sealed sources
authorized in the same license except for an application that deals
only with the sealed sources authorized by the license.
\5\ For a combined import and export license application for material
listed in Appendix P to part 110 of this chapter, only the higher of
the two applicable fee amounts must be paid.
PART 171--ANNUAL FEES FOR REACTOR LICENSES AND FUEL CYCLE LICENSES
AND MATERIALS LICENSES, INCLUDING HOLDERS OF CERTIFICATES OF
COMPLIANCE, REGISTRATIONS, AND QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM APPROVALS
AND GOVERNMENT AGENCIES LICENSED BY THE NRC
7. The authority citation for part 171 continues to read as
follows:
Authority: Sec. 7601, Pub. L. 99-272, 100 Stat. 146, as amended
by sec. 5601, Pub. L. 100-203, 101 Stat. 1330, as amended by sec.
3201, Pub. L. 101-239, 103 Stat. 2132, as amended by sec. 6101, Pub.
L. 101-508, 104 Stat. 1388, as amended by sec. 2903a, Pub. L. 102-
486, 106 Stat. 3125 (42 U.S.C. 2213, 2214), and as amended by Title
IV, Pub. L. 109-103, 119 Stat. 2283 (42 U.S.C. 2214); sec. 301, Pub.
L. 92-314, 86 Stat. 227 (42 U.S.C. 2201w); sec. 201, Pub. L. 93-438,
88 Stat. 1242, as amended (42 U.S.C. 5841); sec. 1704, 112 Stat.
2750 (44 U.S.C. 3504 note).
8. Section 171.3 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 171.3 Scope.
The regulations in this part apply to any person holding an
operating license for a power reactor, test reactor or research reactor
issued under part 50 of this chapter and to any person holding a
combined license issued under part 52 of this chapter that authorizes
operation of a power reactor. The regulations in this part also apply
to any person holding a materials license as defined in this part, a
Certificate of Compliance, a sealed source or device registration, a
quality assurance program approval, and to a Government agency as
defined in this part. Notwithstanding the other provisions in this
section, the regulations in this part do not apply to uranium
enrichment facilities until after the Commission verifies through
inspection that the facility has been constructed in accordance with
the requirements of the license, as required in 10 CFR parts 40 and 70.
9. Section 171.15 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 171.15 Annual fees: Reactor licenses and independent spent fuel
storage licenses.
(a) Each person holding an operating license for a power, test, or
research reactor; each person holding a 10 CFR part 50 or part 52 power
reactor license that is in decommissioning or possession only status,
except those that have not spent fuel onsite; and each person holding a
10 CFR part 72 license who does not hold a 10 CFR part 50 or part 52
license shall pay the annual fee for each license held at any time
during the Federal fiscal year (FY) in which the fee is due. This
paragraph does not apply to test and research reactors exempted under
Sec. 171.11(a).
[[Page 5132]]
(b)(1) The FY 2007 annual fee for each operating power reactor
which must be collected by September 30, 2007, is $4,088,000.
(2) The FY 2007 annual fee is comprised of a base annual fee for
power reactors licensed to operate, a base spent fuel storage/reactor
decommissioning annual fee, and associated additional charges
(surcharges). The activities comprising the FY 2007 spent storage/
reactor decommissioning base annual fee are shown in paragraphs
(c)(2)(i) and (ii) of this section. The activities comprising the FY
2007 surcharge are shown in paragraph (d)(1) of this section. The
activities comprising the FY 2007 base annual fee for operating power
reactors are as follows:
(i) Power reactor safety and safeguards regulation except licensing
and inspection activities recovered under part 170 of this chapter and
generic reactor decommissioning activities.
(ii) Research activities directly related to the regulation of
power reactors, except those activities specifically related to reactor
decommissioning.
(iii) Generic activities required largely for NRC to regulate power
reactors (e.g., updating part 50 or 52 of this chapter, operating the
Incident Response Center, new reactor regulatory infrastructure). The
base annual fee for operating power reactors does not include generic
activities specifically related to reactor decommissioning.
(c)(1) The FY 2007 annual fee for each power reactor holding a 10
CFR part 50 license that is in a decommissioning or possession only
status and has spent fuel onsite, and each independent spent fuel
storage 10 CFR part 72 licensee who does not hold a 10 CFR part 50
license is $150,000.
(2) The FY 2007 annual fee is comprised of a base spent fuel
storage/reactor decommissioning annual fee (which is also included in
the operating power reactor annual fee shown in paragraph (b) of this
section), and an additional charge (surcharge). The activities
comprising the FY 2007 surcharge are shown in paragraph (d)(1) of this
section. The activities comprising the FY 2007 spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning rebaselined annual fee are:
(i) Generic and other research activities directly related to
reactor decommissioning and spent fuel storage; and
(ii) Other safety, environmental, and safeguards activities related
to reactor decommissioning and spent fuel storage, except costs for
licensing and inspection activities that are recovered under part 170
of this chapter.
(d)(1) The surcharge allocated to annual fees includes the budgeted
resources for the activities listed in paragraph (d)(1)(i) of this
section, plus the total budgeted resources for the activities included
in paragraphs (d)(1)(ii) and (d)(1)(iii) of this section as reduced by
the appropriations NRC receives for these types of activities. If the
NRC's appropriations for these types of activities are greater than the
budgeted resources for the activities included in paragraphs (d)(1)(ii)
and (d)(1)(iii) of this section for a given FY, a negative surcharge
(or annual fee reduction) will be allocated to annual fees. The
activities comprising the FY 2007 surcharge are as follows:
(i) Low-level waste disposal generic activities;
(ii) Activities not attributable to an existing NRC licensee or
class of licenses (e.g., international cooperative safety program and
international safeguards activities, support for the Agreement State
program); and
(iii) Activities not currently subject to 10 CFR part 170 licensing
and inspection fees based on existing law or Commission policy (e.g.,
reviews and inspections conducted of nonprofit educational
institutions, costs that would not be collected from small entities
based on Commission policy in accordance with the Regulatory
Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq., regulatory support for Agreement
States, generic decommissioning/reclamation activities for fee classes
other than power reactors and spent fuel storage/reactor
decommissioning, the in-situ leach rulemaking, activities for
unregistered general licensees).
(2) The total FY 2007 surcharge allocated to the operating power
reactor class of licenses is -$5.8 million, not including the amount
allocated to the spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning class. The
FY 2007 operating power reactor surcharge to be assessed to each
operating power reactor is approximately -$56,000. This amount is
calculated by dividing the total operating power reactor surcharge (-
$5.8 million) by the number of operating power reactors (104).
(3) The FY 2007 surcharge allocated to the spent fuel storage/
reactor decommissioning class of licenses is -$344,000. The FY 2007
spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning surcharge to be assessed to
each operating power reactor, each power reactor in decommissioning or
possession only status that has spent fuel onsite, and to each
independent spent fuel storage 10 CFR part 72 licensee who does not
hold a 10 CFR part 50 license is approximately -$2,800. This amount is
calculated by dividing the total surcharge costs allocated to this
class by the total number of power reactor licenses, except those that
permanently ceased operations and have no fuel onsite, and 10 CFR part
72 licensees who do not hold a 10 CFR part 50 license.
(e) The FY 2007 annual fees for licensees authorized to operate a
test and research (non-power) reactor licensed under part 50 of this
chapter, unless the reactor is exempted from fees under Sec.
171.11(a), are as follows:
Research reactor........................................... $92,300
Test reactor............................................... 92,300.
10. In Sec. 171.16, paragraph (a)(2) is redesignated as paragraph
(a)(3) and revised, a new paragraph (a)(2) is added, paragraphs (c) and
(d) are revised, and paragraph (e) is added to read as follows:
Sec. 171.16 Annual fees: Materials licensees, holders of certificates
of compliance, holders of sealed source and device registrations,
holders of quality assurance program approvals, and government agencies
licensed by the NRC.
(a) * * *
(2) Notwithstanding the other provisions in this section, the
regulations in this part do not apply to uranium enrichment facilities
until after the Commission verifies through inspection that the
facility has been constructed in accordance with the requirements of
the license, as required in 10 CFR parts 40 and 70.
(3) In accordance with Sec. 171.17, each person identified in
paragraph (a)(1) of this section shall pay the applicable annual fee
for each license the person holds during the FY. Annual fees will be
prorated for new licenses issued and for licenses for which termination
is requested and activities permanently ceased during the FY as
provided in Sec. 171.17. If a single license authorizes more than one
activity (e.g., human use and irradiator activities), annual fees will
be assessed for each fee category applicable to the license. If a
person holds more than one license, the total annual fee assessed will
be the cumulative total of the annual fees applicable to each license
held.
* * * * *
(c) A licensee who is required to pay an annual fee under this
section may qualify as a small entity. If a licensee qualifies as a
small entity and provides the Commission with the proper certification
along with its annual fee payment, the licensee may pay reduced annual
fees as shown in the following table. Failure to file a small entity
certification in a timely manner could result in the denial of any
refund that
[[Page 5133]]
might otherwise be due. The small entity fees are as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum annual
fee per licensed
category
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small Businesses Not Engaged in Manufacturing and
Small Not-For-Profit Organizations (Gross Annual
Receipts):
$350,000 to $5 million............................ $2,300
Less than $350,000................................ 500
Manufacturing entities that have an average of 500
employees or less:
35 to 500 employees............................... 2,300
Less than 35 employees............................ 500
Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly
supported educational institutions) (Population):
20,000 to 50,000.................................. 2,300
Less than 20,000.................................. 500
Educational Institutions that are not State or
Publicly Supported, and have 500 Employees or Less:
35 to 500 employees............................... 2,300
Less than 35 employees............................ 500
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) A licensee qualifies as a small entity if it meets the size
standards established by the NRC (See 10 CFR 2.810).
(2) A licensee who seeks to establish status as a small entity for
the purpose of paying the annual fees required under this section must
file a certification statement with the NRC. The licensee must file the
required certification on NRC Form 526 for each license under which it
is billed. NRC Form 526 can be accessed through the NRC's Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov. For licensees who cannot access the NRC's Web site,
NRC Form 526 may be obtained through the local point of contact listed
in the NRC's ``Materials Annual Fee Billing Handbook,'' NUREG/BR-0238,
which is enclosed with each annual fee billing. The form can also be
obtained by calling the fee staff at 301-415-7554, or by e-mailing the
fee staff at [email protected].
(3) For purposes of this section, the licensee must submit a new
certification with its annual fee payment each year.
(4) The maximum annual fee a small entity is required to pay is
$2,300 for each category applicable to the license(s).
(d) The FY 2007 annual fees are comprised of a base annual fee and
an additional charge (surcharge). The activities comprising the FY 2007
surcharge are shown for convenience in paragraph (e) of this section.
The FY 2007 annual fees for materials licensees and holders of
certificates, registrations or approvals subject to fees under this
section are shown in the following table:
Schedule of Materials Annual Fees and Fees for Government Agencies
Licensed by NRC
[See footnotes at end of table]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Annual fees \1\
Category of materials licenses \2\ \3\
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Special nuclear material:
A.(1) Licenses for possession and use of U-235 or
plutonium for fuel fabrication activities.
(a) Strategic Special Nuclear Material (High $4,451,000
Enriched Uranium)...........................
(b) Low Enriched Uranium in Dispersible Form 1,345,000
Used for Fabrication of Power Reactor Fuel..
(2) All other special nuclear materials licenses
not included in Category 1.A.(1) which are
licensed for fuel cycle activities.
(a) Facilities with limited operations....... 510,000
(b) Gas centrifuge enrichment demonstration 835,000
facilities..................................
(c) Others, including hot cell facilities.... 371,000
B. Licenses for receipt and storage of spent fuel \11\ N/A
and reactor-related Greater than Class C (GTCC)
waste at an independent spent fuel storage
installation (ISFSI)............................
C. Licenses for possession and use of special 2,100
nuclear material in sealed sources contained in
devices used in industrial measuring systems,
including x-ray fluorescence analyzers..........
D. All other special nuclear material licenses, 5,700
except licenses authorizing special nuclear
material in unsealed form in combination that
would constitute a critical quantity, as defined
in Sec. 150.11 of this chapter, for which the
licensee shall pay the same fees as those for
Category 1.A.(2)................................
E. Licenses or certificates for the operation of 2,550,000
a uranium enrichment facility...................
2. Source material:
A.(1) Licenses for possession and use of source 881,000
material for refining uranium mill concentrates
to uranium hexafluoride.........................
(2) Licenses for possession and use of source
material in recovery operations such as milling,
in-situ leaching, heap-leaching, ore buying
stations, ion exchange facilities and in-
processing of ores containing source material
for extraction of metals other than uranium or
thorium, including licenses authorizing the
possession of byproduct waste material
(tailings) from source material recovery
operations, as well as licenses authorizing the
possession and maintenance of a facility in a
standby mode.
(a) Class I facilities \4\................... 35,700
(b) Class II facilities \4\.................. 35,700
(c) Other facilities \4\..................... 89,300
(3) Licenses that authorize the receipt of \5\ N/A
byproduct material, as defined in Section
11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from other
persons for possession and disposal, except
those licenses subject to the fees in Category
2.A.(2) or Category 2.A.(4).....................
[[Page 5134]]
(4) Licenses that authorize the receipt of 35,700
byproduct material, as defined in Section
11e.(2) of the Atomic Energy Act, from other
persons for possession and disposal incidental
to the disposal of the uranium waste tailings
generated by the licensee's milling operations,
except those licenses subject to the fees in
Category 2.A.(2)................................
(5) Licenses that authorize the possession of 21,400
source material related to removal of
contaminants (source material) from drinking
water...........................................
B. Licenses that authorize only the possession, 750
use and/or installation of source material for
shielding.......................................
C. All other source material licenses............ 13,100
3. Byproduct material:
A. Licenses of broad scope for possession and use 28,800
of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and
33 of this chapter for processing or
manufacturing of items containing byproduct
material for commercial distribution............
B. Other licenses for possession and use of 8,300
byproduct material issued under part 30 of this
chapter for processing or manufacturing of items
containing byproduct material for commercial
distribution....................................
C. Licenses issued under Sec. Sec. 32.72 and/ 11,800
or 32.74 of this chapter authorizing the
processing or manufacturing and distribution or
redistribution of radiopharmaceuticals,
generators, reagent kits and/or sources and
devices containing byproduct material. This
category also includes the possession and use of
source material for shielding authorized under
part 40 of this chapter when included on the
same license. This category does not apply to
licenses issued to nonprofit educational
institutions whose processing or manufacturing
is exempt under Sec. 171.11(a)(1). These
licenses are covered by fee under Category 3.D..
D. Licenses and approvals issued under Sec. Sec. 6,600
32.72 and/or 32.74 of this chapter authorizing
distribution or redistribution of
radiopharmaceuticals, generators, reagent kits
and/or sources or devices not involving
processing of byproduct material. This category
includes licenses issued under Sec. Sec.
32.72 and 32.74 of this chapter to nonprofit
educational institutions whose processing or
manufacturing is exempt under Sec.
171.11(a)(1). This category also includes the
possession and use of source material for
shielding authorized under part 40 of this
chapter when included on the same license.......
E. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 4,000
material in sealed sources for irradiation of
materials in which the source is not removed
from its shield (self-shielded units)...........
F. Licenses for possession and use of less than 7,800
10,000 curies of byproduct material in sealed
sources for irradiation of materials in which
the source is exposed for irradiation purposes.
This category also includes underwater
irradiators for irradiation of materials in
which the source is not exposed for irradiation
purposes........................................
G. Licenses for possession and use of 10,000 30,800
curies or more of byproduct material in sealed
sources for irradiation of materials in which
the source is exposed for irradiation purposes.
This category also includes underwater
irradiators for irradiation of materials in
which the source is not exposed for irradiation
purposes........................................
H. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part 32 of 11,300
this chapter to distribute items containing
byproduct material that require device review to
persons exempt from the licensing requirements
of part 30 of this chapter, except specific
licenses authorizing redistribution of items
that have been authorized for distribution to
persons exempt from the licensing requirements
of part 30 of this chapter......................
I. Licenses issued under Subpart A of part 32 of 10,600
this chapter to distribute items containing
byproduct material or quantities of byproduct
material that do not require device evaluation
to persons exempt from the licensing
requirements of part 30 of this chapter, except
for specific licenses authorizing redistribution
of items that have been authorized for
distribution to persons exempt from the
licensing requirements of part 30 of this
chapter.........................................
J. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part 32 of 2,400
this chapter to distribute items containing
byproduct material that require sealed source
and/or device review to persons generally
licensed under part 31 of this chapter, except
specific licenses authorizing redistribution of
items that have been authorized for distribution
to persons generally licensed under part 31 of
this chapter....................................
K. Licenses issued under Subpart B of part 32 of 1,800
this chapter to distribute items containing
byproduct material or quantities of byproduct
material that do not require sealed source and/
or device review to persons generally licensed
under part 31 of this chapter, except specific
licenses authorizing redistribution of items
that have been authorized for distribution to
persons generally licensed under part 31 of this
chapter.........................................
L. Licenses of broad scope for possession and use 14,800
of byproduct material issued under parts 30 and
33 of this chapter for research and development
that do not authorize commercial distribution...
M. Other licenses for possession and use of 5,600
byproduct material issued under part 30 of this
chapter for research and development that do not
authorize commercial distribution...............
N. Licenses that authorize services for other 8,300
licensees, except: (1) Licenses that authorize
only calibration and/or leak testing services
are subject to the fees specified in fee
Category 3.P.; and (2) Licenses that authorize
waste disposal services are subject to the fees
specified in fee categories 4.A., 4.B., and 4.C.
O. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 14,100
material issued under part 34 of this chapter
for industrial radiography operations. This
category also includes the possession and use of
source material for shielding authorized under
part 40 of this chapter when authorized on the
same license....................................
P. All other specific byproduct material 2,700
licenses, except those in Categories 4.A.
through 9.D.....................................
Q. Registration of devices generally licensed \13\ N/A
under part 31 of this chapter...................
4. Waste disposal and processing:
A. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt \5\ N/A
of waste byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material from other persons for
the purpose of contingency storage or commercial
land disposal by the licensee; or licenses
authorizing contingency storage of low-level
radioactive waste at the site of nuclear power
reactors; or licenses for receipt of waste from
other persons for incineration or other
treatment, packaging of resulting waste and
residues, and transfer of packages to another
person authorized to receive or dispose of waste
material........................................
B. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt 11,700
of waste byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material from other persons for
the purpose of packaging or repackaging the
material. The licensee will dispose of the
material by transfer to another person
authorized to receive or dispose of the material
[[Page 5135]]
C. Licenses specifically authorizing the receipt 9,100
of prepackaged waste byproduct material, source
material, or special nuclear material from other
persons. The licensee will dispose of the
material by transfer to another person
authorized to receive or dispose of the material
5. Well logging:
A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 4,300
material, source material, and/or special
nuclear material for well logging, well surveys,
and tracer studies other than field flooding
tracer studies..................................
B. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct \5\ N/A
material for field flooding tracer studies......
6. Nuclear laundries:
A. Licenses for commercial collection and laundry 26,400
of items contaminated with byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear material....
7. Medical licenses:
A. Licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, and 70 13,500
of this chapter for human use of byproduct
material, source material, or special nuclear
material in sealed sources contained in
teletherapy devices. This category also includes
the possession and use of source material for
shielding when authorized on the same license...
B. Licenses of broad scope issued to medical 28,800
institutions or two or more physicians under
parts 30, 33, 35, 40, and 70 of this chapter
authorizing research and development, including
human use of byproduct material except licenses
for byproduct material, source material, or
special nuclear material in sealed sources
contained in teletherapy devices. This category
also includes the possession and use of source
material for shielding when authorized on the
same license \9\................................
C. Other licenses issued under parts 30, 35, 40, 4,800
and 70 of this chapter for human use of
byproduct material, source material, and/or
special nuclear material except licenses for
byproduct material, source material, or special
nuclear material in sealed sources contained in
teletherapy devices. This category also includes
the possession and use of source material for
shielding when authorized on the same license
\9\.............................................
8. Civil defense:
A. Licenses for possession and use of byproduct 2,100
material, source material, or special nuclear
material for civil defense activities...........
9. Device, product, or sealed source safety
evaluation:
A. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation 19,100
of devices or products containing byproduct
material, source material, or special nuclear
material, except reactor fuel devices, for
commercial distribution.........................
B. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation 19,100
of devices or products containing byproduct
material, source material, or special nuclear
material manufactured in accordance with the
unique specifications of, and for use by, a
single applicant, except reactor fuel devices...
C. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation 2,700
of sealed sources containing byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear material,
except reactor fuel, for commercial distribution
D. Registrations issued for the safety evaluation 900
of sealed sources containing byproduct material,
source material, or special nuclear material,
manufactured in accordance with the unique
specifications of, and for use by, a single
applicant, except reactor fuel..................
10. Transportation of radioactive material:
A. Certificates of Compliance or other package
approvals issued for design of casks, packages,
and shipping containers.
1. Spent Fuel, High-Level Waste, and \6\ N/A
plutonium air packages......................
2. Other Casks............................... \6\ N/A
B. Quality assurance program approvals issued
under part 71 of this chapter.
1. Users and Fabricators..................... \6\ N/A
2. Users..................................... \6\ N/A
C. Evaluation of security plans, route approvals, \6\ N/A
route surveys, and transportation security
devices (including immobilization devices)......
11. Standardized spent fuel facilities............... \6\ N/A
12. Special Projects................................. \6\ N/A
13.A. Spent fuel storage cask Certificate of \6\ N/A
Compliance..........................................
B. General licenses for storage of spent fuel under \12\ N/A
10 CFR 72.210.......................................
14. Decommissioning/Reclamation:
A. Byproduct, source, or special nuclear material \7\ N/A
licenses and other approvals authorizing
decommissioning, decontamination, reclamation,
or site restoration activities under parts 30,
40, 70, 72, and 76 of this chapter..............
B. Site-specific decommissioning activities \7\ N/A
associated with unlicensed sites, whether or not
the sites have been previously licensed.........
15. Import and Export licenses....................... \8\ N/A
16. Reciprocity...................................... \8\ N/A
17. Master materials licenses of broad scope issued 278,000
to Government agencies..............................
18. Department of Energy:
A. Certificates of Compliance.................... \10\ 1,066,000
B. Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act 657,000.
(UMTRCA) activities.............................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Annual fees will be assessed based on whether a licensee held a
valid license with the NRC authorizing possession and use of
radioactive material during the current FY. However, the annual fee is
waived for those materials licenses and holders of certificates,
registrations, and approvals who either filed for termination of their
licenses or approvals or filed for possession only/storage licenses
before October 1, 2006, and permanently ceased licensed activities
entirely by September 30, 2006. Annual fees for licensees who filed
for termination of a license, downgrade of a license, or for a
possession only license during the FY and for new licenses issued
during the FY will be prorated in accordance with the provisions of
Sec. 171.17. If a person holds more than one license, certificate,
registration, or approval, the annual fee(s) will be assessed for each
license, certificate, registration, or approval held by that person.
For licenses that authorize more than one activity on a single license
(e.g., human use and irradiator activities), annual fees will be
assessed for each category applicable to the license. Licensees paying
annual fees under Category 1.A.(1) are not subject to the annual fees
for Categories 1.C. and 1.D. for sealed sources authorized in the
license.
[[Page 5136]]
\2\ Payment of the prescribed annual fee does not automatically renew
the license, certificate, registration, or approval for which the fee
is paid. Renewal applications must be filed in accordance with the
requirements of parts 30, 40, 70, 71, 72, or 76 of this chapter.
\3\ Each FY, fees for these materials licenses will be calculated and
assessed in accordance with Sec. 171.13 and will be published in the
Federal Register for notice and comment.
\4\ A Class I license includes mill licenses issued for the extraction
of uranium from uranium ore. A Class II license includes solution
mining licenses (in-situ and heap leach) issued for the extraction of
uranium from uranium ores including research and development licenses.
An ``other'' license includes licenses for extraction of metals, heavy
metals, and rare earths.
\5\ There are no existing NRC licenses in these fee categories. If NRC
issues a license for these categories, the Commission will consider
establishing an annual fee for this type of license.
\6\ Standardized spent fuel facilities, 10 CFR parts 71 and 72
Certificates of Compliance and related Quality Assurance program
approvals, and special reviews, such as topical reports, are not
assessed an annual fee because the generic costs of regulating these
activities are primarily attributable to users of the designs,
certificates, and topical reports.
\7\ Licensees in this category are not assessed an annual fee because
they are charged an annual fee in other categories while they are
licensed to operate.
\8\ No annual fee is charged because it is not practical to administer
due to the relatively short life or temporary nature of the license.
\9\ Separate annual fees will not be assessed for pacemaker licenses
issued to medical institutions who also hold nuclear medicine licenses
under Categories 7.B. or 7.C.
\10\ This includes Certificates of Compliance issued to DOE that are not
under the Nuclear Waste Fund.
\11\ See Sec. 171.15(c).
\12\ See Sec. 171.15(c).
\13\ No annual fee is charged for this category because the cost of the
general license registration program applicable to licenses in this
category will be recovered through 10 CFR part 170 fees.
(e) The surcharge allocated to annual fees includes the budgeted
resources for the activities listed in paragraph (e)(1) of this
section, plus the total budgeted resources for the activities included
in paragraphs (e)(2) and (e)(3) of this section as reduced by the
appropriations NRC receives for these types of activities. If the NRC's
appropriations for these types of activities are greater than the
budgeted resources for the activities included in paragraphs (e)(2) and
(e)(3) of this section for a given FY, a negative surcharge (or annual
fee reduction) will be allocated to annual fees. The activities
comprising the FY 2007 surcharge are as follows:
(1) Low-level waste disposal generic activities;
(2) Activities not attributable to an existing NRC licensee or
class of licenses (e.g., international cooperative safety program and
international safeguards activities, support for the Agreement State
program); and
(3) Activities not currently subject to 10 CFR part 170 licensing
and inspection fees based on existing law or Commission policy (e.g.,
reviews and inspections conducted of nonprofit educational
institutions, costs that would not be collected from small entities
based on Commission policy in accordance with the Regulatory
Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq., regulatory support for Agreement
States, generic decommissioning/reclamation activities for fee classes
other than power reactors and spent fuel storage/reactor
decommissioning, the in-situ leach rulemaking, and activities for
unregistered general licensees).
11. Section 171.17 is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 171.17 Proration.
Annual fees will be prorated for NRC licensees as follows:
(a) Reactors, 10 CFR part 72 licensees who do not hold 10 CFR part
50 licenses, and materials licenses with annual fees of $100,000 or
greater for a single fee category.
(1) New licenses. The annual fees for new licenses for power
reactors, non-power reactors, 10 CFR part 72 licensees who do not hold
a 10 CFR part 50 license, and materials licenses with annual fees of
$100,000 or greater for a single fee category for the current FY, that
are subject to fees under this part and are granted a license to
operate on or after October 1 of a FY, are prorated on the basis of the
number of days remaining in the FY. Thereafter, the full annual fee is
due and payable each subsequent FY.
(2) Terminations. The base operating power reactor annual fee for
operating reactor licensees who have requested amendment to withdraw
operating authority permanently during the FY will be prorated based on
the number of days during the FY the license was in effect before
docketing of the certifications for permanent cessation of operations
and permanent removal of fuel from the reactor vessel or when a final
legally effective order to permanently cease operations has come into
effect. The spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning annual fee for
reactor licensees who permanently cease operations and have permanently
removed fuel from the site during the FY will be prorated on the basis
of the number of days remaining in the FY after docketing of both the
certifications of permanent cessation of operations and permanent
removal of fuel from the site. The spent fuel storage/reactor
decommissioning annual fee will be prorated for those 10 CFR part 72
licensees who do not hold a 10 CFR part 50 license who request
termination of the 10 CFR part 72 license and permanently cease
activities authorized by the license during the FY based on the number
of days the license was in effect before receipt of the termination
request. The annual fee for materials licenses with annual fees of
$100,000 or greater for a single fee category for the current FY will
be prorated based on the number of days remaining in the FY when a
termination request or a request for a POL is received by the NRC,
provided the licensee permanently ceased licensed activities during the
specified period.
(3) Downgrades. The annual fee for a materials license with an
annual fee of $100,000 or greater for a single fee category for the
current FY, that is subject to fees under this part and downgraded on
or after October 1 of a FY, is prorated upon request by the licensee on
the basis of the number of days remaining in the FY when the
application for downgrade is received by the NRC, provided the licensee
permanently ceased the stated activities during the specified period.
Requests for proration must be filed with the NRC within 90 days from
the effective date of the final rule establishing the annual fees for
which a proration is sought. Absent extraordinary circumstances, any
request for proration of the annual fee for a downgraded license filed
beyond that date will not be considered.
(b) Materials licenses (excluding 10 CFR part 72 licenses and
materials license with annual fees of $100,000 or greater for a single
fee category, included in Sec. 171.17(a)).
(1) New licenses. The annual fee for a materials license that is
subject to fees under this part and issued on or after October 1 of the
FY is prorated on the basis of when the NRC issues the new license. New
licenses issued during the period October 1 through March 31 of the FY
will be assessed one-half the annual fee for that FY. New licenses
issued on or after April 1 of the FY will
[[Page 5137]]
not be assessed an annual fee for that FY. Thereafter, the full fee is
due and payable each subsequent FY.
(2) Terminations. The annual fee will be prorated for licenses for
which a termination request or a request for a POL has been received on
or after October 1 of a FY on the basis of when the application for
termination or POL is received by the NRC provided the licensee
permanently ceased licensed activities during the specified period.
Licenses for which applications for termination or POL are filed during
the period October 1 through March 31 of the FY are assessed one-half
the annual fee for the applicable category(ies) for that FY. Licenses
for which applications for termination or POL are filed on or after
April 1 of the FY are assessed the full annual fee for that FY.
Materials licenses transferred to a new Agreement State during the FY
are considered terminated by the NRC, for annual fee purposes, on the
date that the Agreement with the State becomes effective; therefore,
the same proration provisions will apply as if the licenses were
terminated.
(3) Downgraded licenses.
(i) The annual fee for a materials license that is subject to fees
under this part and downgraded on or after October 1 of a FY is
prorated upon request by the licensee on the basis of when the
application for downgrade is received by the NRC provided the licensee
permanently ceased the stated activities during the specified period.
Requests for proration must be filed with the NRC within 90 days from
the effective date of the final rule establishing the annual fees for
which a proration is sought. Absent extraordinary circumstances, any
request for proration of the annual fee for a downgraded license filed
beyond that date will not be considered.
(ii) Annual fees for licenses for which applications to downgrade
are filed during the period October 1 through March 31 of the FY will
be prorated as follows:
(A) Licenses for which applications have been filed to reduce the
scope of the license from a higher fee category(ies) to a lower fee
category(ies) will be assessed one-half the annual fee for the higher
fee category and one-half the annual fee for the lower fee
category(ies), and, if applicable, the full annual fee for fee
categories not affected by the downgrade; and
(B) Licenses with multiple fee categories for which applications
have been filed to downgrade by deleting a fee category will be
assessed one-half the annual fee for the fee category being deleted and
the full annual fee for the remaining categories.
(iii) Licenses for which applications to downgrade are filed on or
after April 1 of the FY are assessed the full fee for that FY.
12. In Sec. 171.19 paragraph (d) is revised to read as follows:
Sec. 171.19 Payment.
* * * * *
(d) Annual fees of less than $100,000 must be paid as billed by the
NRC. Materials license annual fees that are less than $100,000 are
billed on the anniversary date of the license. The materials licensees
that are billed on the anniversary date of the license are those
covered by fee categories 1.C., 1.D., 2.A.(2) through 2.A.(5), 2.B.,
2.C., and 3.A. through 9.D.
* * * * *
Dated at Rockville, Maryland, this 25th day of January 2007.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Jesse L. Funches,
Chief Financial Officer.
Note: This appendix will not appear in the Code of Federal
Regulations.
Appendix A to This Proposed Rule--Draft Regulatory Flexibility Analysis
for the Proposed Amendments to 10 CFR Part 170 (License Fees) and 10
CFR Part 171 (Annual Fees)
I. Background
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), as amended (5 U.S.C. 601
et seq.), requires that agencies consider the impact of their
rulemakings on small entities and, consistent with applicable
statutes, consider alternatives to minimize these impacts on the
businesses, organizations, and government jurisdictions to which
they apply.
The NRC has established standards for determining which NRC
licensees qualify as small entities (10 CFR 2.810). These size
standards were established based on the Small Business
Administration's most common receipts-based size standards and
include a size standard for business concerns that are manufacturing
entities. The NRC uses the size standards to reduce the impact of
annual fees on small entities by establishing a licensee's
eligibility to qualify for a maximum small entity fee. The small
entity fee categories in Sec. 171.16(c) of this proposed rule are
based on the NRC's size standards.
The NRC is required each year, under OBRA-90, as amended, to
recover approximately 90 percent of its budget authority (less
amounts appropriated from the NWF and for other activities
specifically removed from the fee base), through fees to NRC
licensees and applicants. The total amount NRC is required to
recover in fees for FY 2007 is approximately $664.9 million.
OBRA-90 requires that the schedule of charges established by
rulemaking should fairly and equitably allocate the total amount to
be recovered from the NRC's licensees and be assessed under the
principle that licensees who require the greatest expenditure of
agency resources pay the greatest annual charges. Since FY 1991, the
NRC has complied with OBRA-90 by issuing a final rule that amends
its fee regulations. These final rules have established the
methodology used by NRC in identifying and determining the fees to
be assessed and collected in any given FY.
The Commission is proposing to rebaseline its part 171 annual
fees in FY 2007. Rebaselining fees results in increased annual fees
compared to FY 2006 for two classes of licenses (power reactors and
non-power reactors), and decreased annual fees for five classes of
licenses (spent fuel storage/reactor decommissioning, fuel
facilities, uranium recovery, rare earth, and transportation). For
the materials users fee class, annual fees decrease for most of the
categories (sub-classes) of licenses, while annual fees for some
categories increase or remain the same.
The Congressional Review Act of 1996 provides Congress with the
opportunity to review agency rules before they go into effect. Under
this legislation, the NRC annual fee rule is considered a ``major''
rule and must be reviewed by Congress and the Comptroller General
before the rule becomes effective.
The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act also
requires that an agency prepare a guide to assist small entities in
complying with each rule for which a final RFA is prepared. This RFA
and the small entity compliance guide (Attachment 1) have been
prepared for the FY 2007 fee rule as required by law.
II. Impact on Small Entities
The fee rule results in substantial fees being charged to those
individuals, organizations, and companies that are licensed by the
NRC, including those licensed under the NRC materials program. The
comments received on previous proposed fee rules and the small
entity certifications received in response to previous final fee
rules indicate that NRC licensees qualifying as small entities under
the NRC's size standards are primarily materials licensees.
Therefore, this analysis will focus on the economic impact of the
fees on materials licensees. In FY 2006, about 31 percent of these
licensees (approximately 1,300 licensees) qualified as small
entities.
The commenters on previous fee rulemakings consistently
indicated that the following results would occur if the proposed
annual fees were not modified:
1. Large firms would gain an unfair competitive advantage over
small entities. Commenters noted that small and very small companies
(``Mom and Pop'' operations) would find it more difficult to absorb
the annual fee than a large corporation or a high-volume type of
operation. In competitive markets, such as soil testing, annual fees
would put small licensees at an extreme competitive disadvantage
with their much larger competitors because the proposed fees would
be the same for a two-person licensee as for a large firm with
thousands of employees.
2. Some firms would be forced to cancel their licenses. A
licensee with receipts of less
[[Page 5138]]
than $500,000 per year stated that the proposed rule would, in
effect, force it to relinquish its soil density gauge and license,
thereby reducing its ability to do its work effectively. Other
licensees, especially well-loggers, noted that the increased fees
would force small businesses to get rid of the materials license
altogether. Commenters stated that the proposed rule would result in
about 10 percent of the well-logging licensees terminating their
licenses immediately and approximately 25 percent terminating their
licenses before the next annual assessment.
3. Some companies would go out of business.
4. Some companies would have budget problems. Many medical
licensees noted that, along with reduced reimbursements, the
proposed increase of the existing fees and the introduction of
additional fees would significantly affect their budgets. Others
noted that, in view of the cuts by Medicare and other third party
carriers, the fees would produce a hardship and some facilities
would experience a great deal of difficulty in meeting this
additional burden.
Over 3,000 license, approval, and registration terminations have
been requested since the NRC first established annual fees for
materials licenses. Although some of these terminations were
requested because the license was no longer needed or licenses or
registrations could be combined, indications are that other
termination requests were due to the economic impact of the fees.
To alleviate the significant impact of the annual fees on a
substantial number of small entities, the NRC considered the
following alternatives in accordance with the RFA in developing each
of its fee rules since FY 1991.
1. Base fees on some measure of the amount of radioactivity
possessed by the licensee (e.g., number of sources).
2. Base fees on the frequency of use of the licensed radioactive
material (e.g., volume of patients).
3. Base fees on the NRC size standards for small entities.
The NRC has reexamined its previous evaluations of these
alternatives and continues to believe that establishment of a
maximum fee for small entities is the most appropriate and effective
option for reducing the impact of its fees on small entities.
III. Maximum Fee
The RFA and its implementing guidance do not provide specific
guidelines on what constitutes a significant economic impact on a
small entity; therefore, the NRC has no benchmark to assist it in
determining the amount or the percent of gross receipts that should
be charged to a small entity. In developing the maximum small entity
annual fee in FY 1991, the NRC examined its 10 CFR part 170
licensing and inspection fees and Agreement State fees for those fee
categories which were expected to have a substantial number of small
entities. Six Agreement States (Washington, Texas, Illinois,
Nebraska, New York, and Utah), were used as benchmarks in the
establishment of the maximum small entity annual fee in FY 1991.
The NRC maximum small entity fee was established as an annual
fee only. In addition to the annual fee, NRC small entity licensees
were required to pay amendment, renewal and inspection fees. In
setting the small entity annual fee, NRC ensured that the total
amount small entities paid annually would not exceed the maximum
paid in the six benchmark Agreement States.
Of the six benchmark states, the maximum Agreement State fee of
$3,800 in Washington was used as the ceiling for the total fees.
Thus the NRC's small entity fee was developed to ensure that the
total fees paid by NRC small entities would not exceed $3,800. Given
the NRC's FY 1991 fee structure for inspections, amendments, and
renewals, a small entity annual fee established at $1,800 allowed
the total fee (small entity annual fee plus yearly average for
inspections, amendments and renewal fees) for all categories to fall
under the $3,800 ceiling.
In FY 1992, the NRC introduced a second, lower tier to the small
entity fee in response to concerns that the $1,800 fee, when added
to the license and inspection fees, still imposed a significant
impact on small entities with relatively low gross annual receipts.
For purposes of the annual fee, each small entity size standard was
divided into an upper and lower tier. Small entity licensees in the
upper tier continued to pay an annual fee of $1,800 while those in
the lower tier paid an annual fee of $400.
Based on the changes that had occurred since FY 1991, the NRC
re-analyzed its maximum small entity annual fees in FY 2000, and
determined that the small entity fees should be increased by 25
percent to reflect the increase in the average fees paid by other
materials licensees since FY 1991, as well as changes in the fee
structure for materials licensees. The structure of the fees that
NRC charged to its materials licensees changed during the period
between 1991 and 1999. Costs for materials license inspections,
renewals, and amendments, which were previously recovered through
part 170 fees for services, are now included in the part 171 annual
fees assessed to materials licensees. As a result, the maximum small
entity annual fee increased from $1,800 to $2,300 in FY 2000. By
increasing the maximum annual fee for small entities from $1,800 to
$2,300, the annual fee for many small entities was reduced while at
the same time materials licensees, including small entities, would
pay for most of the costs attributable to them. The costs not
recovered from small entities are allocated to other materials
licensees and to power reactors.
While reducing the impact on many small entities, the NRC
determined that the maximum annual fee of $2,300 for small entities
may continue to have a significant impact on materials licensees
with annual gross receipts in the thousands of dollars range.
Therefore, the NRC continued to provide a lower-tier small entity
annual fee for small entities with relatively low gross annual
receipts, and for manufacturing concerns and educational
institutions not State or publicly supported, with less than 35
employees. The NRC also increased the lower tier small entity fee by
the same percentage increase to the maximum small entity annual fee.
This 25 percent increase resulted in the lower tier small entity fee
increasing from $400 to $500 in FY 2000.
The NRC stated in the RFA for the FY 2001 final fee rule that it
would re-examine the small entity fees every two years, in the same
years in which it conducts the biennial review of fees as required
by the Chief Financial Officer's Act. Accordingly, the NRC examined
the small entity fees again in FY 2003 (68 FR 36714; June 18, 2003),
and determined that a change was not warranted to the small entity
fees established in FY 2003. The NRC performed a similar review, and
reached the same conclusion, in FY 2005.
The NRC has again re-examined its small entity fees for the FY
2007 fee rulemaking, and does not believe that a change to the small
entity fees was warranted. Unlike the annual fees assessed to other
licensees, the small entity fees are not designed to recover all of
the agency costs associated with particular licensees. Instead, the
reduced fees for small entities are designed to provide some fee
relief for qualifying small entity licensees while at the same time
recovering from them some of the agency's costs for activities that
benefit them. The costs not recovered from small entities for
activities that benefit them must be recovered from other licensees.
Given the reduction in annual fees from FY 2000 to FY 2007, on
average, for those categories of materials licensees that contain a
number of small entities, the NRC has determined that the current
small entity fees of $500 and $2,300 continue to meet the objective
of providing relief to many small entities while recovering from
them some of the costs that benefit them.
As part of the small entity review in FY 2007, the NRC also
considered whether it should establish reduced fees for small
entities under part 170. The NRC recently received one comment
requesting that such small entity fees be considered for certain
export licenses, particularly in light of the recent increases to
part 170 fees for these licenses. Because the NRC's part 170 fees
are not assessed to a licensee or applicant on a regular basis
(i.e., they are only assessed when a licensee or applicant requests
a specific service from the NRC), the NRC does not believe that the
impact of its part 170 fees warrants a fee reduction for small
entities under part 170, in addition to the part 171 small entity
fee reduction. Regarding export licenses, in particular, the NRC
notes that interested parties can submit a single application for a
broad scope, multi-year license that permits exports to multiple
countries. Because the NRC's fees are charged per application, this
streamlining process minimizes the fees for export applicants.
Because a single NRC fee can cover numerous exports, and because
there are a limited number of entities who apply for these licenses,
the NRC does not anticipate that the part 170 export fees will have
a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities.
Therefore, the NRC is proposing to retain the $2,300 small
entity annual fee and the $500 lower tier small entity annual fee
for FY
[[Page 5139]]
2007. The NRC is not proposing to establish a small entity fee under
part 170. The NRC plans to re-examine the small entity fees again in
FY 2009.
IV. Summary
The NRC has determined that the 10 CFR part 171 annual fees
significantly impact a substantial number of small entities. A
maximum fee for small entities strikes a balance between the
requirement to recover 90 percent of the NRC budget and the
requirement to consider means of reducing the impact of the fee on
small entities. Based on its regulatory flexibility analysis, the
NRC concludes that a maximum annual fee of $2,300 for small entities
and a lower-tier small entity annual fee of $500 for small
businesses and not-for-profit organizations with gross annual
receipts of less than $350,000, small governmental jurisdictions
with a population of less than 20,000, small manufacturing entities
that have less than 35 employees, and educational institutions that
are not State or publicly supported and have less than 35 employees
reduces the impact on small entities. At the same time, these
reduced annual fees are consistent with the objectives of OBRA-90.
Thus, the fees for small entities maintain a balance between the
objectives of OBRA-90 and the RFA. Therefore, the analysis and
conclusions previously established remain valid for FY 2007.
Attachment 1 to Appendix A--U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Small
Entity Compliance Guide; Fiscal Year 2007
Contents
Introduction
NRC Definition of Small Entity
NRC Small Entity Fees
Instructions for Completing NRC Form 526
Introduction
The Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act requires
all Federal agencies to prepare a written guide for each ``major''
final rule, as defined by the Act. The NRC's fee rule, published
annually to comply with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of
1990 (OBRA-90), as amended, is considered a ``major'' rule under the
Congressional Review Act. Therefore, in compliance with the law,
this guide has been prepared to assist NRC materials licensees in
complying with the FY 2007 fee rule.
Licensees may use this guide to determine whether they qualify
as a small entity under NRC regulations and are eligible to pay
reduced FY 2007 annual fees assessed under 10 CFR part 171. The NRC
has established two tiers of annual fees for those materials
licensees who qualify as small entities under the NRC's size
standards.
Licensees who meet the NRC's size standards for a small entity
(listed in 10 CFR 2.810) must submit a completed NRC Form 526
``Certification of Small Entity Status for the Purposes of Annual
Fees Imposed Under 10 CFR Part 171'' to qualify for the reduced
annual fee. This form can be accessed on the NRC's Web site at
http://www.nrc.gov. The form can then be accessed by selecting ``Who
We Are'', then ``License Fees'' and under ``Forms'' selecting NRC
Form 526. For licensees who cannot access the NRC's Web site, NRC
Form 526 may be obtained through the local point of contact listed
in the NRC's ``Materials Annual Fee Billing Handbook,'' NUREG/BR-
0238, which is enclosed with each annual fee billing. Alternatively,
the form may be obtained by calling the fee staff at 301-415-7554,
or by e-mailing the fee staff at [email protected]. The completed form,
the appropriate small entity fee, and the payment copy of the
invoice should be mailed to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
License Fee Team, at the address indicated on the invoice. Failure
to file the NRC small entity certification Form 526 in a timely
manner may result in the denial of any refund that might otherwise
be due.
NRC Definition of Small Entity
For purposes of compliance with its regulations (10 CFR 2.810),
the NRC has defined a small entity as follows:
(1) Small business--a for-profit concern that provides a
service, or a concern that is not engaged in manufacturing, with
average gross receipts of $5 million or less over its last 3
completed fiscal years;
(2) Manufacturing industry--a manufacturing concern with an
average of 500 or fewer employees based on employment during each
pay period for the preceding 12 calendar months;
(3) Small organizations--a not-for-profit organization that is
independently owned and operated and has annual gross receipts of $5
million or less;
(4) Small governmental jurisdiction--a government of a city,
county, town, township, village, school district or special
district, with a population of less than 50,000;
(5) Small educational institution--an educational institution
supported by a qualifying small governmental jurisdiction, or one
that is not State or publicly supported and has 500 or fewer
employees.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ An educational institution referred to in the size standards
is an entity whose primary function is education, whose programs are
accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or
association, who is legally authorized to provide a program of
organized instruction or study, who provides an educational program
for which it awards academic degrees, and whose educatonal programs
are available to the public.
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To further assist licensees in determining if they qualify as a
small entity, the following guidelines are provided, which are based
on the Small Business Administration's regulations (13 CFR part
121).
(1) A small business concern is an independently owned and
operated entity which is not considered dominant in its field of
operations.
(2) The number of employees means the total number of employees
in the parent company, any subsidiaries and/or affiliates, including
both foreign and domestic locations (i.e., not solely the number of
employees working for the licensee or conducting NRC licensed
activities for the company).
(3) Gross annual receipts includes all revenue received or
accrued from any source, including receipts of the parent company,
any subsidiaries and/or affiliates, and account for both foreign and
domestic locations. Receipts include all revenues from sales of
products and services, interest, rent, fees, and commissions, from
whatever sources derived (i.e., not solely receipts from NRC
licensed activities).
(4) A licensee who is a subsidiary of a large entity does not
qualify as a small entity.
NRC Small Entity Fees
In 10 CFR 171.16(c), the NRC has established two tiers of fees
for licensees that qualify as a small entity under the NRC's size
standards. The fees are as follows:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maximum annual
fee per licensed
category
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Small business not engaged in manufacturing and small
not-for-profit organizations (Gross Annual Receipts):
$350,000 to $5 million............................ $2,300
Less than $350,000................................ 500
Manufacturing entities that have an average of 500
employees or less:
35 to 500 employees............................... 2,300
Less than 35 employees............................ 500
Small Governmental Jurisdictions (Including publicly
supported educational institutions (population):
20,000 to 50,000.................................. 2,300
Less than 20,000.................................. 500
Educational institutions that are not State or
publicly supported, and have 500 Employees or less:
35 to 500 employees............................... 2,300
Less than 35 employees............................ 500
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 5140]]
Instructions for Completing NRC Small Entity Form 526
1. Complete all items on NRC Form 526 as follows: (Note:
Incomplete or improperly completed forms will be returned as
unacceptable.)
Enter the license number and invoice number exactly as
they appear on the annual fee invoice.
Enter the North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS) code if it is known. If it is not known, leave this item
blank.
Enter the licensee's name and address exactly as they
appear on the invoice. Annotate name and/or address changes for
billing purposes on the payment copy of the invoice--include
contact's name, telephone number, e-mail address, and company Web
site address. Correcting the name and/or address on NRC Form 526 or
on the invoice does not constitute a request to amend the license.
Check the appropriate size standard under which the
licensee qualifies as a small entity. Check one box only. Note the
following:
a. A licensee who is a subsidiary of a large entity, including
foreign entities, does not qualify as a small entity. The
calculation of a firm's size includes the employees or receipts of
all affiliates. Affiliation with another concern is based on the
power to control, whether exercised or not. Such factors as common
ownership, common management and identity of interest (often found
in members of the same family), among others, are indications of
affiliation. The affiliated business concerns need not be in the
same line of business (67 CFR part 59).
b. Gross annual receipts, as used in the size standards, include
all revenue received or accrued by your company from all sources,
regardless of the form of the revenue and not solely receipts from
licensed activities.
c. NRC's size standards on small entity are based on the Small
Business Administration's regulations (13 CFR 121).
d. The size standards apply to the licensee, not to the
individual authorized users who may be listed in the license.
2. If the invoice states the ``Amount Billed Represents 50%
Proration,'' the amount due is not the prorated amount shown on the
invoice but rather one-half of the maximum small entity annual fee
shown on NRC Form 526 for the size standard under which the licensee
qualifies (either $1,150 or $250) for each category billed.
3. If the invoice amount is less than the reduced small entity
annual fee shown on this form, pay the amount on the invoice; there
is no further reduction. In this case, do not file NRC Form 526.
However, if the invoice amount is greater than the reduced small
entity annual fee, file NRC Form 526 and pay the amount applicable
to the size standard you checked on the form.
4. The completed NRC Form 526 must be submitted with the
required annual fee payment and the ``Payment Copy'' of the invoice
to the address shown on the invoice.
5. 10 CFR 171.16(c)(3) states licensees shall submit a new
certification with its annual fee payment each year. Failure to
submit NRC Form 526 at the time the annual fee is paid will require
the licensee to pay the full amount of the invoice.
The NRC sends invoices to its licensees for the full annual fee,
even though some licensees qualify for reduced fees as small
entities. Licensees who qualify as small entities and file NRC Form
526, which certifies eligibility for small entity fees, may pay the
reduced fee, which is either $2,300 or $500 for a full year,
depending on the size of the entity, for each fee category shown on
the invoice. Licensees granted a license during the first 6 months
of the fiscal year, and licensees who file for termination or for a
``possession only'' license and permanently cease licensed
activities during the first 6 months of the fiscal year, pay only 50
percent of the annual fee for that year. Such invoices state that
the ``amount billed represents 50% proration.''
Licensees must file a new small entity form (NRC Form 526) with
the NRC each fiscal year to qualify for reduced fees in that year.
Because a licensee's ``size,'' or the size standards, may change
from year to year, the invoice reflects the full fee and licensees
must complete and return form 526 for the fee to be reduced to the
small entity fee amount. Licensees will not receive a new invoice
for the reduced amount. The completed NRC Form 526, the payment of
the appropriate small entity fee, and the ``Payment Copy'' of the
invoice should be mailed to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
License Fee Team at the address indicated on the invoice.
If you have questions regarding the NRC's annual fees, please
contact the license fee staff at 301-415-7554, e-mail the fee staff
at [email protected], or write to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
Washington, DC 20555-0001, Attention: Office of the Chief Financial
Officer.
False certification of small entity status could result in civil
sanctions being imposed by the NRC under the Program Fraud Civil
Remedies Act, 31 U.S.C. 3801 et seq. NRC's implementing regulations
are found at 10 CFR part 13.
[FR Doc. E7-1634 Filed 2-1-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7590-01-P